


Symptoms Include

by ragenink



Category: Rookie Blue
Genre: Crimes & Criminals, F/F, Fluff, Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-06
Updated: 2015-06-15
Packaged: 2018-03-06 10:40:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 49,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3131552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ragenink/pseuds/ragenink
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Every happy ending doesn't always have a smooth start. This story follows Gail and Holly after Holly comes back from SF, how they are trying to deal with the changes in their relationships, their jobs, and their lives.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Chapter 1**

AN: Good Morning, Evening, Afternoon, or night to every lovely person who has taken time to even click on this. I've been writing this story for a few weeks, unsure about posting it but here it is. I have 10K+ written already but here's the first 3K or so words.

if anyone likes this ill keep posting. I love hearing what people think, the good and the bad, the only way i can get better is by hearing what i'm doing wrong.

The rookie blue cast is not owned by myself, if it was the officer lunchbox story would have been a lot different in season 5.

Here goes nothing...

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A lot can change in two years, people change, jobs change, family grow and shrink, you age, you learn, and you grow. When asked how much two years can change how much they loved each other Gail and Holly would share a simple smile and tell you they loved each other more than any two people should be allowed. They had grown separately in two years, they had no choice they were 2000 miles apart on different sides of the same continent.

They had also grown together in that time, learning more about each other through late night phone calls, endless text message conversations, and visits when time would allow for it. Gail had grown up, she had officially adopted Sophie almost a year ago. She wasn't ashamed to admit that her parents had pulled in every favor they had, making sure Gail had every reference she needed to make everything final. She also knew that those flavors would end in family dinners, updates on how Sophie was doing in school, in therapy, Gail would have to apply for the next detectives rotations, and do so seriously (which she was granted the promotion before her mother even knew about her application).

A yearlong battle with lawyers, shrinks, and meeting with social workers had been more than worth it the first week Sophie had been home with her. Holly had flown back to Toronto to be there for the official welcome Sophie home party, she had been there when Sophie asked Gail and Elaine to take the Peck last name. That was the first time Holly had seen Gail cry tears of joy, Holly's heart swelled with love with both of them in that moment.

It had taken two years for Holly to finish out her contract in San Francisco, to finish her interview process in Toronto to be the Chief ME. Gail and Holly spent almost a year trying to figure out how things would change when Holly was back in Toronto for good, should Holly get her own place for a year so she could reconnect with Gail and get to know Sophie better.

Gail had admitted to Holly later that she had talked to Sophie about these options as well and Sophie had laughed, telling Gail that Holly should live with them because she know how much they loved each other. Gail was amazed at how big her young girl's heart was, and how easily she could love and forgive the world after what she had been through. Gail and Sophie met Holly at the airport one last time, happy when Holly only had a carry on with her because all of her things were being delivered to the house later, Holly was finally home.

Gail woke up alone in their bed, it was Saturday morning and neither of them had to work. Confused as to why her bed was empty Gail made her way down the hall, peeking into Sophie's room smiling at how her daughter was sleeping starfishes across her bed. Gail closed her door and walked downstairs, seeing Holly lying on the couch reading what looked like a medical textbook.

Gail was partially hidden in the dark of the kitchen, unabashedly watching Holly, the way her hair was fanned across the armrest, the way her tank top had ridden up past her waist. Gail poured a cup of coffee from the still steaming pot and leaned against the door frame in the living room. Holly was lost in her book, which was normal for a Saturday morning, Gail could be walking around the house naked and Holly would not even notice if she was reading, this theory had been tested a few times when Gail was in San Francisco.

This was one of Gail's favorite sites, seeing Holly comfortable, and oblivious to her surroundings so lost in her own thoughts. Gail could watch her this way without being caught, Gail would never tell anyone that she loved to just sit and watch Holly. Gail sipped her coffee, watched Holly's chest rise and fall with her steady breathing and how her jaw would clench and relax as she read. Gail smiled to herself satisfied that she had taken in the entire morning before she finished her coffee and quickly padded her way to Holly. Gail kicked out of her slippers before crawling to fit into the space between Holly and the back of the couch.

"Mmhhm" Holly smiled, putting her book down and hugged Gail. "Morning" Gail breathed against Holly's neck snuggling closer to her. "Good morning" Holly smiled, kissing Gail's forehead. "Why are you awake so early?" Holly asked, sinking lower on the couch and so she could properly cuddle with Gail. "My source of warmth in the arctic you call our bedroom was gone." Gail laughed running her fingers along Holly's abs. "You are always freezing babe, its normal person's temperature in that room." Holly laughed gently capturing Gail's lips in her own. "Whatever, I was cold" Gail laughed, kissing Holly again running her hand along Holly's hip.

"What time is it?" Holly asked, lacing her fingers with Gail's, trying to stop her hand from traveling lower. "5:30" Gail shrugged laying her head on Holly's shoulder. "You know the house is sound proof right, you don't have to put the brakes on me every time," Gail pouted trying to sit up. She was frustrated by the total lack of intimacy since Holly had been home. "Gail you're a mom" Holly sighed, looking at Gail; she was still trying to adjust to living in a house with a kid.

"A kid who can sleep threw an earthquake Holly, or did you forget about our visit to see you in San Francisco." Gail asked running her fingers threw her shoulder length hair. "I need to get ready for shift" Gail got off the couch and walked up stairs flustered. It was an adjustment for all of them, Sophie loved Holly and was happy to have her living with them, but she wasn't sure if she had to listen to Holly when she did something wrong. Holly wasn't sure if she was allowed to enforce the rules.

"Gail" Holly walked into their bedroom and saw Gail, lying back on the bed. "What?" she barked covering her face, it hurt Holly to see Gail this way "Gail" Holly sighed, closing the door, afraid this was going to turn into a fight. Holly stood in front of her waiting for Gail to look at her or even acknowledge her presence. "If you didn't want to be here Holly, you didn't have to agree to move in." Gail huffed chewing on her lip this had been the theme of their disagreements so far. "Is that what you think this is?" Holly s looked down at her girlfriend that was obviously upset. "It's been a month Holly, you have been back a month and you're afraid to touch me, or let me touch you. Do you not want to do this, is that what this is, a place to stay until you figure out what you want?" Gail was on the verge of tears, Holly could see the tears pooling in Gail's eyes, as well as the distinctive sound in Gail's voice.

"You don't work today, are you really going to the station?" Holly asked chewing on her lip trying to get to the source of what all of this was. "Yup, avoid the question great" Gail got up and stormed into the in suite bathroom slamming the door behind her. Holly picked up her phone and hit speed dial number 3, Waiting for someone to pick up. "Holly, is everything ok?" Tracie answered on the second ring. "I need you to do me a favor, can you come pick up Sophie for the day?" Holly sighed into the phone, forgetting her need for pleasantries. She may have been overstepping but she needed to talk to Gail, and she didn't want it to be a fight, but she didn't want Sophie to be there if it happened.

"Yeah, we are taking Leo to the zoo so she is more than welcome to join us, I can pick her up in 20 minutes." Tracie sensed something was up because holly rarely called for a favor. "Thank you so much, I'll get her up." Holly walked out of their bedroom once she heard the shower start. She knew she had at least 30 minutes before Gail came back into their bedroom.

"Hey soph, it's time to get up." Holly stroked the girls' hair and Sophie squinted at her. "Why?" Sophie sat up and stretched, Holly loved how easy it was to wake her up. "Because Aunt Tracie is going to come over and pick you up, and you're going to the zoo!" Holly smiled and Sophie seemed to perk up. "Really!" Sophie smiled and Holly nodded. "Awesome, are you and mom going too?" Sophie asked, throwing off her covers and digging through her closet to pick out something to wear. "No, we have to go into work for a while" Holly frowned and watched as Sophie ran into the bathroom to brush her teeth and fix her hair. "She's going to be here soon so hurry up kid!" Holly called running downstairs to make her a quick breakfast.

It wasn't long before Tracie knocked on the door. "Hey, thank you so much Trac, I owe you major" Holly sighed, looking back as Sophie finished her eggs and toast. "Is everything ok?" Tracie asked, looking at Holly then at Sophie. "Honestly?" Holly asked and pulled Tracie into the living room. "I think Gail and I are about to have a huge fight and I don't want her here for that." Holly sighed leaning against the wall completely unsure of what to do. "What's going on?" Tracie asked, concerned, she had been there for Gail the whole time Holly was away, she knew better than anyone how much Holly meant to Gail. "she has been pushing for it all morning, she woke up early and it started almost right away trace, we are still adjusting to seeing each other every day and she kept trying to start this fight this morning" Holly was on the verge of tears. "Ok, well how about this, why don't I take Sophie for the weekend, you know her and Leo gets along great." Tracie smiled trying to be as helpful as possible.

"That would be amazing, but I don't think I have the right to say yes to that" Holly sighed and heard the shower shut off. "You should get going, this may not be pretty" Holly chewed on her lip and Tracie nodded. "Alright girly, you ready to go to the zoo!" Holly asked, walking into the kitchen and Sophie grinned. "YES!" she jumped and ran to the door with Tracie. "Ok, call me if you need anything please?" Holly asked and handed Tracie 100 bucks. "For whatever she wants at the zoo, and lunch, and whatever else. I owe you so much Tracie." Holly smiled and Tracie laughed. "Let's go kid," Tracie laughed and they walked out the door.

Holly locked the door and went upstairs just as Gail came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her. "Whys the doors open?" Gail asked, looking at Holly She was still pissed off. "Because I want to talk to you, and I don't want you to feel trapped." Holly shrugged trying to access Gail temper. "Did you at least close Sophie's door." Gail asked, pulling on a pair of sweats under her towel. "Don't be mad please?" Holly asked, sitting on their bed. "Sophie is with Tracie, they are going to the zoo today." Holly watched Gail move around room dressing as she went.

"So you can run without her seeing you do it." Gail muttered chewing on her lip. "Go Holly, I'm not going to try and convince you to stay." Gail walked into the closet and pulled on her running shoes. "Do you want me to leave Gail, do you not want me here?" Holly was about to cry the last few arguments hadn't been like this, they had been upset but gail was angry, fuming, and saying everything she knew would hurt holly the most. "I asked you to move in with me Holly, I want you here, but I don't want you to feel like you're doing me some kind of favor being here, that you are obligated to live with me and Sophie because we asked you to be here." Gail walked into the bedroom and looked at Holly.

"Then why are you doing this, why are you treating me like this, like you want me to leave?" Gail could hear the tears in Holly's voice. "You have been here a month Holly, you have been back a month and it's been hell, you won't touch me, you keep saying it's because you trying to take it slow, but what is going on, it's never been like this with us, it's like you're looking for a way out. It's like you're not touching me because you're about to leave, looking for a way to let me down easy" Gail asked, she was pissed, every muscle tense. "Gail, we haven't been together this long in two years, I'm trying to find a routine, to find my place with you and Sophie, things are different" Holly sighed and reached for her phone on the night stand as it started to ring. "Do you not want to me with me?" Gail asked, her voice cracking.

"It's this case isn't it" Holly sighed, looking at a picture of her, Gail, and Sophie with the golden gate bridge in the background. "This case, it's too much like perik isn't it?" Holly asked again putting her phone in the drawer of her night stand. A few days before Holly had landed back in Toronto, Gail had caught a case, her first big case of homicide detective peck. Women in her early 20's had been bound, drugged, and tossed into the lake. Holly wasn't the ME on the case, but she knew enough about it to know it had to be affecting Gail.

"Stop avoiding my question Holly!" Gail yelled and Holly flinched. "I love you Gail, of course I want to me here with you, with Sophie. I love you both Gail, I want you" Holly was trying to hold back the tears, pulling her knees to her chest. "Then why won't you touch me?" the tears in Gail's eyes threatening to spill over. "Because you're different Gail is that what you want to heat, you've been acting differently. You act like sex is going to fix the way you feel, that it's going to stop the nightmares." Holly breathed into her knees "that's why I wasn't in bed at 5 this morning when you woke up Gail, because you've been having nightmares since I came home, and you fight me every time I try to hold you close, you scream, and you cry and it hurts, it hurts knowing that I can't help you with this." Holly looked at Gail and biting on her lip trying to control her breathing. "Gail, I want to be with you, I love you, but everything is so different, you're acting different and I don't know how to be with this version of you." Holly got out of bed and walked past Gail downstairs to the kitchen.

She didn't want to have this conversation, to admit he saw the fear in Gail's eyes. The pain, Gail was having nightmares every night, the dreams that haunted her that Holly couldn't make go away. Holly was afraid of having this conversation with Gail, admitting her own fears. Holly made a cup of coffee and sat on the couch. Trying to cool off, she didn't want to fight with Gail, but she didn't know how making it better. "I'll be back later." Gail called over her shoulder as she walked out the door and Holly broke down in tears, Sobs escaping against her will. Maybe Gail didn't want her here and she should leave, go stay with Rachel for a few days, and give Gail a chance to cool off time to breathe.

Maybe moving in together so soon was a bad idea, they had been together for nearly 2 and a half years, but that had been over the phone, and Skype, and random visits when weekends could I managed. She had spent time getting to know Sophie, falling in love with the little girl who captured her girlfriend's heart as well as Holly's. Holly didn't know what to do, and she knew if she explained things to Tracie that Gail would kill her for sharing their personal information. Holly felt stuck, unsure if she should wait for Gail to get home, or leave for a few days to let her cool off.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

A THANK YOU! Really, thank you for continuing to read, follow, favorite and review. Here are the next 2K or so words.

I promise this story isn't all drama there fluff will happen…just not yet

If you want to know, what I'm listening to while writing these it's the You+Me album RoseAve. (Pink and City and Colour).

Let me know what you think!

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Running, Gail and Holly had both proven in the past that their go to problem solver was running from it. Gail ran out of the penny and away from Holly, Holly left the country only to realize days before that it was a mistake she couldn't take back. They day old habits die hard, and Gail was still running from her. Holly understood on some level that Gail needed to get whatever it was out of her system, she needed to work through it before she would let Holly in, but that didn't make it hurt less. Loving someone who's go to defense mechanism is running away can be hard, but Holly wasn't about to repeat her own mistakes and leave. Her name was on the lease, the bills, she was listed as a guardian on Sophie's school forms, and Gail's emergency contact. Holly was going to stay here until Gail came back because she wanted to make things right. Also, she didn't know when Gail was going to be home and she knew Sophie wouldn't be gone all day.

Holly has spent most of the day in her office working on reports that needed her signature trying her best to not have another break down about the events of the morning. She had tried to rationalize the fight all morning, but was giving up and putting it off as Gail being Gail, pushing her away because she was too close. When she heard a car, pull into the driveway Holly wondered in Gail would be willing to talk to her rather than fight. Her heart sank when the doorbell rang, Gail wasn't home yet. Holly grabbed her glasses off her desk and made her way to the front door looking through the window, seeing Steve, but he was not with Sophie. "Hi Steve" Holly opened the door, letting him inside wondering what he was going to say. "Hi Holly, um" he rubbed the back of his neck looking at Holly. "Gail said I could stop by and pick up some of Sophie's stuff, she's going to spend the night at ours" Steve looked at Holly with sad eyes. "Ugh yeah, let me get her pajamas and stuff" Holly took a deep breath and walked upstairs, she wondered if that meant that Gail wasn't coming home tonight, the thought almost made her cry again.

"is everything ok with you two?" Steve asked, leaning against the door frame to Sophie's room, Holly looked tired, and her eyes puffy and she lacked her normal Holly smile. "Tracie said Gail was being an ass this morning" Steve let a forced smile when Holly turned around holding a backpack; he knew how his sister could get. Steve also knows that Holly was the reason his sister has grown up and opened herself to new things. "I don't know Steve" Holly chewed on her lip walking to the dresser and picking out Sophie's pajamas and clothes for the following day. It's hard being in love with someone who you share the same circle with, its hard loving someone and having few unshared friends. Holly didn't think she had the right to vent to most of them because they were Gail's friends first, they were her family. They had welcomed her with open arms and had kept in contact while she was away, but it's different when you are fighting.

"I don't want to be the middle man, but Gail asked me to ask you if you would be home tonight for dinner" Steve took the bag that Holly offered him and moved out of the way to let Holly pass to the bathroom. "I don't know" Holly shrugged, grabbing Sophie's tooth brush and tooth paste and placing them into a plastic baggie. "Did she say she was coming home for dinner?" Holly asked handing him the tooth brush. "She didn't tell me, she won't tell me anything it's been like that for a few months." Steve sighed following Holly down stairs.

"I should get back, um" Steve set the bag down and pulled Holly into an awkward hug. "Just, don't give up on her just yet?" Steve breathed releasing Holly and walking to the door. "Thanks Steve" Holly gave Steve a tight lipped smiled, waving goodbye as he left. Holly was spent, emotionally, physically; she didn't have the energy to do anything so she went upstairs and laid down hoping Gail would come home tonight. The dark of the master bedroom lets Holly slip into a tense sleep trying to keep an ear out for Gail's return.

Gail came home to a dark house, Holly's Jeep was in the garage and her purse was on the vanity by the door which made Gail let out a sigh of relief. She set the bags of Thai take out on the counter along with the assortment of other peace offerings on the counter and wandered upstairs. Gail found Holly face down on the bed, snoring softly, Her glasses and phone clutched in her hand. Gail went into the bathroom to shower before waking Holly for dinner and the pending talk about everything that had been building up for weeks.

Gail had spent her morning at the station gym, running on the treadmill and later, sparing with Nick in the boxing ring. She was trying to let out all of her pent up anger and relieve stress. She didn't need someone pointing out to her that she had been a bitch, but when the text came from Tracie saying that she was on the verge of fucking up the best thing she has ever had because she doesn't know how to talk to people Gail did what she considered to be a last resort thing. Gail made and appointment with her therapist that she hadn't seen in almost a year. Gail had opened up about the case, about her stress, about everything between her and Holly and then realized she was talking to the wrong person. Gail needed to talk to Holly about all of these things, not a therapist.

Gail knew she was bad at talking about her feelings, she had spent so many years making her walls stronger that letting someone see her vulnerable scared her half to death. Holly had always somehow been on the inside of her walls, giving girl someone to talk to, someone who didn't see her as a peck, someone who didn't expect her to fuck up, to be cold. Gail loved that Holly didn't judge her, or try to change her, Holly had always been there. When she left Dr. Swarzz's office, she had called Steve and Tracie asking them to watch Sophie for the night. Gail knew that her talking about her feelings often meant getting drunk, crying, and yelling at no one in particular and everyone at the same time, Sophie didn't need to see her like that.

Gail made a few stops before heading home, the first was at the beauty salon to fix her hair, the second was to the candy store near Holly's office to pick up Holly's favorite chocolates, then to the liquor store to get her favorite bourbon, and then to pick up dinner. Gail realized that all of these purchases could be for nothing, there was a chance that Holly had had enough and left like Gail kept suggesting this morning, but she hoped that Holly would still be there at their home and was willing to talk and hopefully let Gail make up for her issues.

When Gail got out of the shower, she quickly dried her hair and put on a pair of shorts and one of Holly's hoodies before opening the door to their bedroom. Holly was sitting up in bed looking at her phone. "Hi" Gail said timidly looking at Holly. "H-"the word was caught in Holly's throat when she saw Gail's hair. It was cropped short, like it had been two years ago, the way Holly loved. "Please tell me you didn't do that yourself" Holly sighed worried about the women who held her heart, remembering vividly the first time Gail had cut her hair. "I went to the salon, I needed a change" Gail self-consciously played with her hair trying to gauge Holly's mood. "I got dinner… I mean… um... can we talk about all of this and eat?" Gail asked, taking a deep breath hoping Holly would hear her out. She knew it was the last thing she deserved.

"Um, sure" Holly got out of bed, walking out of the room and down stairs as quickly as she could. She wanted to tell Gail how much she loved her hair short, and how happy she was that Gail had come home, but she was also sad about how different everything had been since she came back to Toronto. Oddly enough, it had been easier being together when they a whole country separated them. "I got your favorite, spicy basil fried rice" Gail handed Holly a plate and walked past her to sit at the table they ate in every night. A routine they both wanted to keep with Sophie to ensure there were constants in her life.

The tension in the room was tangible, both were afraid to make the first move, to start eating, to start talking, to breathe too hard. "I'm sorry" Gail sighed, setting her fork down, giving up completely on the idea of eating. "I'm an ass, I've been more of the ice queen Gail this last month than I have been the women you fell in love with." Gail chanced a glance at Holly that was looking down at her plate pushing her food around. "I thought I had worked through all of my baggage during the adoption process, I thought I had moved past everything and that I was a new me." Gail leaned back in her seat running her finger along her fingers along the edge of the table. "I left this morning and I was pissed, you voiced all of my fears, you made me see how I was acting with both you and Sophie" Gail was trying to control her breathing, trying to keep the tears from escaping her eyes, trying to lay her heart out there like she had done so many times with Holly.

"I don't want to be her anymore, I don't want to be the ice queen" Gail let out a soft laugh at how ridiculous this all was, how ridiculous she was being. "Holly" Gail waited for her to look at her, to meet her eyes. "I'm so sorry" Gail bit down on her trembling lip. "I left today and tried to take my aggression out of a treadmill, running farther than I needed to, I tried to take it out on nick in the boxing ring, I tried to take it out on you this morning" Gail wiped her eyes trying to take a calming breath. "You don't deserve that, Sophie does not deserve that" Gail let her head fall into her hands. "because I love you both so much it hurts" Gail was crying now, unable to hold back her emotions, Holly watched from across the table, she watched the women she loved struggle with letting her in again and struggling with her own fears and worries.

Gail didn't know how long they had sat there in silence, the sound of gales ragged breathing filling the room, waiting for Gail's tears to slow down, for her breathing to return to normal. She didn't know when Holly had given her the tissue box when Holly had gotten up or when she had sat back down. She was all too aware of the quit though, the fact that Holly hadn't said anything since she walked out of their bedroom. "I went to see Dr. Swarzz today" Gail hiccupped wiping her nose. "And I realized half way through my session that I shouldn't be talking to her" Gail picked at the edges of the tissue box afraid to look up at Holly. "I needed to be here, talking to you. Because you're the one that has been there for me this whole time, the one that can read me like an open book" Gail stood up and walked into the kitchen needing to move, to do something before she started crying again. She busied herself with pouring two glasses from the bottle of William Larue Weller Bourbon.

"Before you got home, when I was called to the crime scene" Gail sat back down sliding a glass to Holly and setting the bottle between them. "All I could think was, this could have been me 3 years ago, and I could be the one on your table. You wouldn't know anything about me other than what my corpse told you." Gail puts the glass to her lips and drank half of her bourbon in one gulp barley wincing as it burned its way down to her stomach. "The idea of never knowing you Holly" Gail set the glass back down meeting Holly's eyes as she finished her glass. "The idea of never knowing what it's like to love someone more than life itself scares the hell out of me. And I started dreaming that it was you trapped in that basement, that it was Sophie, I had to catch the guy because he was going to hurt my family." Gail let the tears fall from her eyes.

"That fear caused the walls to come back up double time" Gail finished her drink and wiped her face. "I'm so afraid of losing you, of losing Sophie, of fucking everything up, and I'm going to do my best to not be a bitch anymore" Gail chewed on her lip trying to regain composure. "Today is kind of backwards" Holly lets out a soft laugh finally speaking. "Why?" Gail asked, wiping her eyes again before reaching for the bottle between them. "The last time you got drunk, freaked out, and then cut off all your hair" Holly smiled biting on her lip. "Are we going to be ok?" Gail asked to play with the bottle, Holly wanted to say yes, they were going to be fine. They were going to figure it out; they were going to work through it all. Holly wanted to pull Gail to her and just hold on for dear life, never letting go. Holly wanted to thank Gail for letting her in, for finally opening up and talking to her. "I know we have so much to figure out still, that you deserve the best, Holly imp going to do everything I can to make sure you get the best from me." Gail pleaded, watching Holly, hoping beyond everything that they could make it through this.

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

AN: i don't own the show, i don't make money from this... yada yada

Chapter 4 is super fluffy, and will be up on Friday.

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Holly knew from past experience that interrupting Gail when she was talking about her feelings was like pulling the E-break; Gail would become closed off faster than Holly could blink. That is why Holly had not spoken since Gail started expressing herself, actually opening up to her. She wanted to get up and hold Gail, to wipe away her tears, to keep her safe, but she knew that touching her at this point would have the same effect as her voice would, so she sat quietly and listened. "Can you say something?" Gail asked, ripping up the tissue in her hand, making a neat pile on the table. "You being this quiet is freaking me out." Gail sighed looking up at Holly. "I'm sorry, I didn't want to throw off your train of thought" Holly sighed, moving her plate aside tired of looking at the food. "Are we going to be ok?" Gail asked, pouring another glass of bourbon.

"Gail" Holly looked up to meet Gail's eyes "we have a lot to figure out, so much to work through." It is hard to admit that you aren't sure of something, that you can't make a promise that things will return to normal. "I know, and I know that I'm the reason everything is so fucked up right now." Gail stood up and walked to the kitchen. She needed a moment of not staring at Holly to catch breath. Laying your heart on the line like that for most people is hard, but for Gail it was her worst fear. "I know that when I say I'm going to make it better it seems like an empty promise because, like you said we have done this before, me getting drunk and freaking out." Gail leaned on the doorframe shoving her hands into the pocket of her hoodie. "I didn't say that Gail" Holly grabbed the bottle of Bourbon in front of her trying to find a distraction.

"I made a standing appointment with Dr. Swarzz," Gail stated after a moment, running her fingers through her hair. "Monthly check ins, to make sure I don't keep doing this shit." Gail wasn't sure how to feel anymore. A lifetime of being told that emotions make you weak, that you have to be strong, you have to meet ridiculous milestones hadn't prepared her for Holly. Nothing had prepared her for the woman who walked into her life and made all the rules change. "I made an appointment for Monday afternoon; I was hoping you would go with me." Gail hated talking to shrinks, she hated sitting in an office while someone took notes about everything she said, asking stupid probing questions.

Peck's don't go to therapy, Peck's don't need to talk about their feelings, and Peck's don't let people see their weaknesses that's what Gail had grown up with. Those were the words her mother had told her after Perik. Holly knew how much Gail hated therapy, even taking Sophie for her checkups made Gail anxious. "Really?" Holly asked setting the bottle back on the table forgetting to fill her glass. "Yes really, I'm committed to this, to making it right, to you." Gail was grinning at Holly, like a child who just won the spelling bee.

"I also got you chocolates" Gail reached behind her and picked up the box from the counter, examining it quickly before holding them out to Holly. "Come here." Holly smiled, reaching out to Gail. "I know you didn't sign up for my drama hols." Gail didn't move from the doorway, afraid that she would do something wrong. "Come here." Holly repeated more forcefully moving back from the table. "I'm sorry," Gail, breathed walking towards Holly, if the room had not been so quiet Holly would have missed it. "I know" Holly smiled, taking Gail's hand in hers and standing up. "I love you so much" Gail started tearing up again. "I love you too Gail" Holly pulled Gail into her arms and held her as Gail started crying. Holly was unsure of how to exactly proceed with the situation, as Gail's crying was not a normal occurrence. Holly slowly walked them to the couch never releasing Gail from her arms.

"I'm so sorry Holly." Gail muttered into Holly's neck once she stopped crying. "Can you do me a favor?" Holly asked, kissing Gail's hair line. "I'll do anything for you." Gail breathed hugging Holly tighter afraid to let Holly go. "Stop trying to give me an out, because I don't want one. I want to be here with you, with Sophie. You're my family and I love you both so much." Holly pushed Gail back to look her in the eye, trying to make sure Gail understood what she meant. "I love you Gail, so much." Holly absently wiped the tear stains on Gail's cheeks. "I don't need an out, I don't want one, I just need you to talk to me Gail, you need to let me in, because this, you getting mad and asking me to leave, it hurts." Holly took a deep breath and ran her thumb along the corn of Gail's mouth.

"I never want you to leave," Gail breathed leaning into Holly's hand savoring the feeling of her hand on her skin. "I want you here forever," Gail smiled closing her eyes. "Look at me." Holly was smiling at Gail happy to be touching her in any way. "I'm not going anywhere Gail." Holly leaned in and place a gentle kiss on the corner of Gail's lips. She pulled back to look at Gail again, happy that the tides had calmed in her eyes. "I think we should head to bed, it's been a long and emotional day" Holly laughed letting her hand slide along Gail's neck. "We should go pick up Sophie in the morning and take her for pancakes" Holly laughed, kissing Gail's forehead before helping her to her feet. "I think that sounds great," Gail agreed following Holly upstairs to their bedroom.

Holly was dressed in her pajamas sitting up in bed when Gail came out of the bathroom changed into a pair of Holly's old scrub pants. "I'm sorry for being distant." Holly sighed, watching Gail, Gail wasn't the only reason their relationship had taken a spiral for the worst the past few weeks. "Its weird you know, going from loving you both so much, but only talking to you on the phone or through a web cam. Then being here every day, this is the most time we have spent together in 2 years." Holly watched Gail stand at the edge of their bed; she looked like she was contemplating where to sit. "I was never around kids growing up, I'm not very good with them, and I don't know what's appropriate in front of them sometimes. I know Sophie knows we are a couple, that she understands the jest of how that works. We've talked to her about it, but it still feels weird, you know." Holly laughed, taking off her glasses and setting them on the night stand.

"I want to touch you Gail, to kiss you, and let things be how they were before I left, before I came back, but I don't want to make you or Sophie uncomfortable." Holly lifted the covers so Gail would get into bed. "I understand" Gail laughed her mood completely shifted from when she first entered their bedroom this evening. She wasn't sitting too close to Holly, still unsure of where they were the boundaries were, but she felt lighter after telling Holly's everything. "I guess that's also kinda my fault for not talking to you about this." Gail laughed playing with the seam of the blanket.

"before the adoption was finalized, when Sophie was still in foster care we talked about how her living with me would change things, and how you would play a part in her life even more than the times she saw you when you were visiting." Gail looked at Holly and smiled. "I told her that if she ever felt uncomfortable with anything to let me know, and she laughed at me." Holly watched Gail, she wanted to laugh because sometimes Gail looked like a child herself even more so with her adorable pixie cut, fidgeting in bed, her hair messy, and her sleeping clothes too big on her.

"Sophie told me that she gets that grownups kiss, and they hold hands, and that they love each other." Gail chanced a look at Holly and smiled. "I'm not saying that we should make out in front of her, but she is ok if you kiss me Holly, if I kiss you. Us holding hands, hugging, it's all part of that too." Gail laughed scooting down on the bed to lay down. "She said it's weird that we don't kiss because Aunt Tracie and Uncle Steve kiss, and my parents kiss, and Oliver and celery kiss." Gail laughed looking at Holly. "I'm not kidding hol, the kid had a list of people who would kiss in front of her and we were not on it and she thought it was because we didn't love each other," Gail laughed looking up at the ceiling.

"A list?" Holly asked, looking down at Gail. "She tried to blame another kid at school for causing a pushing match on the playground and I was on a stakeout with Steve and Tracie" Gail shook her head and stretched before getting more comfortable. "My mom had to go talk to her teacher, which is concerning because she is the dragon lady, but she told Sophie that to blame someone for something she has to present the evidence, to prove that they were at fault" Gail rolled her eyes. "Because my mom only knows how to talk to cops, or put things into policing procedures and Sophie took it to heart. She built a case, reasons she thinks we are just friends" Gail laughed stretching out enough that her knee was touching Holly.

"She has the reasons written down somewhere too. This all happened after your last visit home. Her reasons were 1. We didn't live together 2. We bicker a lot 3. We don't kiss, or hug. She said people who love each other are nice to each other, and live together, and hug and kiss and that we don't do that" Gail yawned and rolled onto her side facing Holly. "She's almost 11 and I think she is really 30 because she is so smart. Sometimes she is too smart for her own good" Gail smiled to herself concentrating on a small ribbon of skin that was visible along the waistband of Holly's pajama pants.

"I had to tell her that not everyone shows their love in the same way, that we love each other very much and I show my love for you by calling you a nerd." Gail laughed looking up to meet Holly's eyes. "Things are going to change hol, I swear I'm going to get better at this, with us, at showing how much I love you" Gail watched as Holly turned out the lamp on her night stand and lay down. "You love me just fine Gail, you just need to let me in again." Holly smiled, pulling Gail into her arms, breathing in the smell of her shampoo. "we are both still learning how to be this family, the three of us are going to grow together, and we will figure it out along the way" Holly breathed savoring the comfortable weight of Gail pressed against her, a feeling that had been absent for some time.

It's weird how the simplest things can feel new or different. Holly can't remember the last time she fell asleep with Gail in her arms. The last time they laid in bed talking about Sophie or really anything. The last month had been late nights and distant touches. Somehow, they had both stopped trying to make it work, both of them pulling away from each other. It's weird how love can do that, to protect the heart you pull away from the possibility of being hurt, but you keep loving them because you know there's no way to stop.

In the past, Gail had told Holly she wanted to make it work, that's how they came to the decision to stay together while she moved to San Francisco. They had made it work, sure, they had fights about the distance, there were lulls in communication when their schedules had completely flipped and the time difference, be it only a few hours also caused problems but they made it work. Making it work was something they had both become pro at, no matter the challenge they had always made it work.

Today though, only a few hours ago in their kitchen, that was the first time Gail had ever said she was committed to them. It's weird how one phrase changes everything, it's not that Holly doubted Gail's commitment to them, two years apart proved her commitment, but hearing her say it out load was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back per say. That one phrase broke Holly's resolve and made her nearly forget the entire reason they were fighting. Gail was committed to them; she had proven that by coming home, by making a monthly appointment with the shrink, she had opened up without Holly begging to let her in. Holly was no determined to prove her commitment to Gail and Sophie.

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

AN: This chapter has been completely rewritten from what I had originally, because we all need some normal family time don't we? Things only get happier from here : )

I have three more planned out chapters, then it's up in the air…may end it or keep it going….depends on people's reactions.

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Gail came home from work to find Holly and Sophie making cookies in the kitchen. Neither one of them seemed to notice her come in as she stood in the doorway watching the pair work. "MOM!" Sophie turned around and rushed her pushing her out of the doorway she was leaning in. "Hi love, how was your day?" Gail asked hugging Sophie tight. "IT WAS AWESOME," Sophie, gasped pulling Gail by the hand into the living room. "Holly took me to the science museum, did you know Holly was really smart mom, like smarter than grandma smart." Sophie was going a million miles a minuet tugging Gail to her toys. "We got an anatomy game, and an atom puzzle, and books!" Sophie grinned, pointing at toys that were laid across the coffee table. "Did you learn lots?" Gail asked, looking at Holly, who was leaning against the counter watching them. "SO MUCH!" Sophie laughed bouncing up and down.

"Hey kid we were making cookies!" Holly laughed, pointing at the counter that was covered in cookie cutters and dough. "Oh yeah, we are making skeleton cookies!" Sophie squealed, running past Gail back into the kitchen. "Did you happen to eat all the cookie dough?" Gail eyed Sophie suspiciously before following her into the kitchen. "No, Holly won't let me eat it. But she let me taste the frosting!" Sophie grinned, standing on the stool next to Holly. "Is there any left, I may need to double check to make sure it's good" Gail grinned, watching Sophie quickly place the cookies onto a cookie sheet. "I don't know Holly hid it because I kept eating it." Sophie huffed, clapping her hands together once she was done with the cookies. "Ok love, you should go get washed up for dinner." Holly kissed Sophie's forehead before placing the cookies in the oven as Sophie bolted up the stairs.

"Hi" Gail smiled, walking towards Holly. "Hi" Holly greeted pulling Gail closer to her. "Did you have as much fun as Sophie today?" Gail asked, reaching behind Holly to the bowl of frosting on the microwave. "Maybe" Holly watched Gail stick her finger in the bowl. "Don't lie, you geeked out didn't you?" Gail asked sucking on her finger. "You know I love the museum" Holly muttered against Gail's lips pulling her into a lingering kiss. "I really like that frosting." Holly grinned licking her lips while watching Gail. "You are a tease." Gail blushed dipping her head to kiss the junction of Holly's neck and shoulder. "Really, you call me a tease when you started it?" Holly asked untucking the black button down shirt Gail was wearing. "Did you guys make dinner plans?" Gail asked, breathing Holly in, a cinnamon vanilla scent that was purely holly. "We ordered pizza right before you walked in, and Sophie has picked out the movie for the night." Holly hugged Gail tighter.

"Cuddles on the couch sounds like the perfect end to my day" Gail mumbled pulling back enough to kiss Holly again. It was a lazy kiss, both just basking in their closeness. "Tough day?" Holly asked, resting her forehead against Gail's. "Just long, the new rookie messed up a crime scene today and the lab techs just about killed him." Gail shook her head, kissing Holly again quickly. "I'm going to go take a quick shower and change." Gail kissed Holly's forehead and walked up the stairs to wash off the stress of her work day.

While waiting for the cookies to finish Holly had finished the dishes and helped Sophie, haul her toys up to her bedroom. She was the kind of tired that seeps into your bones. The three of them had found an easy routine of homework, chores, and general existence. Tonight was family date night, a day each week they spent with Sophie, doing things she wanted to do most. Sophie got to pick out the day's activities as well as what she wanted for dinner. So the science museum, cookies, pizza, and a movie were on the schedule for the day. It had been planned that all three of them would spend the day at the museum, but with the new case, Holly had Sophie on her own. Holly quickly learned that at 35 she did not have the energy of an 11 year old and really needed a nap.

"You ok there lunchbox?" Gail asked, walking into the kitchen wearing sweats and her old black uniform undershirt. "That kid of yours is a ball of energy and wore me out today." Holly sighed looking at Sophie in the living room. What little energy she had left was quickly fading. "I went easy on you!" Sophie laughed, looking up from her book with a grin. "What scares me is I don't think she was kidding" Holly frowned falling into Gail. "Babe, she isn't kidding, that kid is nonstop." Gail let out a soft laugh wrapping her arms around Holly. "I know" Holly whined against Gail's neck.

"Did you pick colors Soph?!" Gail asked, eyeing Sophie, who was perched on the couch reading. "Yes, dark blue" Sophie smiled, not looking up from her book. "We will paint your room tomorrow." Gail watched her daughter while slowly swaying with Holly. "Too much energy" Holly hugging Gail a little tighter. "Come on nerd, let's go sit down." Gail kissed Holly's hair and walked them back into the living room.

"Did you have fun today Sophie?" Holly asked, laying on the couch taking off her glasses. "I had a blast!" Sophie grinned and took off upstairs to put her book away. "Pizza's here!" Sophie yelled half way up the stairs looking quickly back at the door. "Thanks" Gail shook her head, watching Sophie before heading door to collect the food. They had fallen into a pretty perfect routine, but this was Holly's first full day alone with Sophie. Andy had offered to help but Holly was determined to do it on her own.

"Soph, let's eat!" Gail called up the stairs, setting the pizza down on the coffee table. "What would you like to drink?" she asked Holly moving the hair from her face. "Water please" Holly stretched before sitting up. "Can I have water too, please?!" Sophie asked, stuffing something between the couch cushions. "Yes, can you help me get some plates?" Gail asked poking at Holly's sighed. "Yes" Sophie giggled, running to the kitchen.

"When can we frost the cookies!?" Sophie eyed the cookies that were cooling by the sink. "After dinner, we will frost them and watch the movie you picked." Gail smiled handing Sophie three plates and napkins. They ate talking about their days; Sophie was enamored by her trip to the museum begging to go back when the exhibits changed again. Once they were done, eating Sophie and Gail went about icing the cookies while Holly sat the counter watching them with an easy smile. "Hot chocolate?" Holly asked, putting the kettle on the stove. "YES!" Sophie squeaked licking the excess icing off of her fingers. "Babe?" Holly asked, hugging Gail from behind. "Tea?" Gail asked, leaning back into Holly. "Sure thing, " Holly kissed Gail's cheek and pulled three mugs from the shelf over the sink.

"What are we watching?" Gail asked once they were all settled back in the living room. "The land before time." Sophie said with a mouthful of cookie. "It was playing at the museum." Holly answered before Gail could question the 25 year old movie choice, blowing gently on the steam rising from her tea cup before leaning into Gail. "Let's get this started" Gail smiled, pressing play and wrapping her arm around Holly's waist. About ten minutes into the movie, Holly seemed to press her full weight into Gail. Gail looked down to see Holly fast asleep holding a now empty tea cup.

"You wore Holly out" Gail smiled affectionately at Sophie, moving just enough so Holly could move to her lap, and releasing the cup from holly's grasp. "I didn't mean to" Sophie sounded guilty looking back at Holly for a few seconds, then focusing back on the TV. Gail loved this new routine, the openness they all seemed to have found in the five months since Holly had been back home. Gail draped the blanket from the back of the couch across Holly and got comfortable.

"Mom." Sophie huffed seeing Gail and Holly both fast asleep on the couch. "Mom" Sophie sighed, trying to move Gail's leg. "What's up love?" Gail asked stretching. "The movies over, you guys fell asleep." Sophie complained, pushing on Gail's leg, reaching for whatever she had hidden before dinner. "Can I wake up Holly?" Sophie asked shyly. "Yeah, love" Gail yawned, running her hand along the Holly's shoulder. "Holly?" Sophie said louder. "Hmm?" Holly asked, squeezing her eyes shut before squinting at Sophie through her crooked glasses. "Thank you for taking me to the museum today." Sophie grinned thrusting a box at Holly. "Any time" Holly smiled at Sophie sitting up so she wouldn't fall back asleep. "Here" Sophie put the box in Holly's hand quickly. "Mom helped me pick it out." Sophie grinned bouncing a little before sitting on Gail's lap. "You sure love?" Gail asked, looking at Sophie for a moment. "Yep" Sophie laughed, letting the P pop the way Gail did.

Holly eyed the two of them suspiciously before opening the box. "Soph" Holly was on the verge of tears seeing the silver locket sitting on gold tissue paper. "You're not supposed to cry, we thought you would like it." Sophie tried to get off Gail's lap getting upset. "Happy tears love, I love it." Holly smiled, pulling Sophie into her arms. "Sometimes when people get really happy they cry, like when you called me mom for the first time" Gail smiled squeezing the little girl's ankle.

"You like it?" Sophie asked shyly, watching Holly's face to see if she was lying. "I love it Sophie, I promise." Holly smiled, moving her hair to the side to secure the chain around her neck. "I'll always wear it." Holly hugged Sophie tight. "Good." Sophie stated triumphantly before wiggling out of Holly's arms. "It's past my bedtime" said matter of factly, kissing Holly on the cheek. "I'll go tuck you in." Gail eyes fixated on holly's teary ones for a moment reading the emotions that played in her eyes.

"Thank you for today soph, I had a lot of fun" Holly smiled tracing the chain of the locket. "I had fun too" Sophie grinned at holly and run upstairs followed slowly by Gail. "You sure about this soph?" Gail asked, watching Sophie brush her teeth. "Yes mom gessh" Sophie huffed looking at Gail in the mirror. "Ok" Gail laughed, hugging Sophie tightly. "Tomorrow we get to paint right?" Sophie asked, walking into her room. "Yes, we will go in the morning and get the paint." Gail laughed tucking Sophie into bed. "Good, because I don't like the pink" Sophie looked around the room and curled up under the covers. "Sweet dreams love" Gail bent down and kissed her forehead. "Love you" Gail whispered, turning out the light. "Love you too" Sophie whispered back before Gail headed downstairs.

Holly was staring at the locket with tears in her eyes when Gail walked back to the couch. "Is this what if felt like when she called you mom for the first time?" Holly asked, wiping her eyes. "Does it feel like your heart is going to explode, but in the best way?" Gail asked sitting down next to Holly. "Yeah" Holly sniffled and smiled, looking at Gail trying to blink away the tears. "When did you guys buy this?" Holly asked, looking at the pictures in the locket, one of Gail and one of Sophie. "Right after her adoption was finalized, I told her it was hers to give to you when she was ready." Gail played with the team on her sweats unable to meet Holly's eyes. "Ready for what?" Holly asked, chewing on her lip. "Just when she was ready" Gail laughed leaning forward to kiss Holly softly. "Let's go to bed?" Gail asked, kissing along Holly's jaw. "Lead the way" Holly whispered in Gail's ear before pulling Gail to her feet with renewed energy.

Post authors note: wanna know what sophie is sure about!? well... you will find out soon.

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

**AN: If you are still reading this thank you! I love every single of your reviews, follows, and favorites.**

**I'm sorry for the delay on this, life just kinda got in the way of my ability to sit down and edit this before posting.**

**So here's the next 2800 words.**

** Let me know what you think! I love hearing from you! **

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Gail was sitting in the morgue waiting for Holly to finish some report she was working on. They had lunch plans with Holly's sister that Gail wasn't particularly looking forward to. "I'm sorry you can't be in here." A mousy looking girl walked in holding a stack of files. "Excuse me?" Gail asked, looking up from her phone. "You don't work here, so you're not supposed to be in here," the girl repeated setting the files on top of the exam table. "Yeah, well you should double check with your boss about that." Gail shrugged looking back at her phone. "I will call security." The girl looked like she was going to jump at Gail.

"Babe, ready?" Holly asked, walking out of her office with her car keys in hand. "You should tell your guard mouse to calm down." Gail eyed the small woman standing on the other side of the exam table before standing up to pull her jacket on. "You know her?" the girl asked, eyeing Gail then shifting her gaze to Holly's face. "God I would hope she's not just calling some random person babe." Gail rolled her eyes reaching for Holly's hand. "Erin this is my girlfriend, Detective Peck." Holly shook her head at Gail. "She is allowed in the morgue, you will see her here often." Holly offered up a small smile and allowed herself to be tugged out of the morgue.

"You could try to be nice you know" Holly laughed, pulling on Gail's arm trying to make her to slow down. "And you should keep your guard mouse on a leash" Gail shrugged lacing her fingers with Holly's. "I'll have to stop by the pet store later, maybe get her a nice running wheel too" Holly shook her head before pushing the door to the building open for Gail.

"What does your sister want to talk about?" Gail asked following Holly to her jeep. "I don't know, she just said it was important" Holly kissed Gail's forehead before opening the passenger door for her. "Why you are being so chivalrous?" Gail asked eyeing Holly. "I can't be nice for my girlfriend?" Holly shrugged closing Gail's door and walking to the driver's side door. "I think you're up to something." Gail eyed holly before leaning back in her seat. "You will never know" Holly grinned, pulling out of her parking space and onto the road.

It had been like this for a few weeks, since Sophie had given Holly the locket; Holly had been brining Gail coffee during her day, opening doors, driving her to work. "So who is the guard mouse anyways, I haven't heard her name before." Gail asked reaching for Holly's hand. "Peter's new intern. She is a little too obsessed with the rules. Her lunches are to the second." Holly shook her head running her thumb along the side of Gail's hand. "She was checking you out." Gail huffed tightening her grip on Holly's hand. "Are you jealous?" Holly tried to suppress her laugh. "Of the woman child, yeah right" Gail rolled her eyes, letting go of Holly's hand to allow her to put the car in park. "You lie about as well as Sophie does" Holly laughed, leaning over the center console to kiss Gail. "Still cute though" she winked getting out of her jeep.

"YOU ARE LATE!" Alexis, Holly's younger sister huffed. "You pulled in after we did" Gail nudged her before sitting down. "I still made it inside before you both did. Bunch of teenagers making out in the car, that's what you two are." Alexis made a gagging noise glairing at Gail. "Love you too Alexis" Holly shook her head before pulling her sister into a quick hug. They tried to get together once a month to catch up since Holly had been home. Today Alexis had some big announcement and wanted both Gail and Holly there to hear about it. Gail and Alexis got along pretty good, which surprised Holly because Gail was the self-proclaimed hater of all people.

"So what's the news?" Gail asked, pushing her menu towards Holly. She never bothered looking at it, She always ordered the same cheeseburger, fries, and a coke. "Can you not wait 10 minutes, no how are you doing Alexis, how's work Alexis, it's always why do you want us here." Alexis rolled her eyes at Gail causing Holly to laugh. "Fine how are you doing Alexis?" Gail asked, dropping her arms on the table. "I'm not telling you now!" Alexis huffed and Gail shook her head. "Her and your guard mouse should be friends" Gail leaning back in her seat looking around the diner.

"Ok fine, Jesse and I are getting married!" Alexis squealed and Holly's smile dropped. "Wait what?" Holly asked, looking at her sister. "He proposed on Friday." Alexis couldn't hide the smile on her face. "Are you kidding?" Holly asked her brows furrowing, she seemed more upset than happy. "No, he took me to dinner and when we were walking home, he asked me to marry him!" Alexis grinned shoving her hand towards Holly. "SEE!?" Alexis showed Holly the ring sitting on her left ring finger. "Congratulations" Gail smiled before nudging Holly, who was just staring at the ring. "Um, yeah. Congratulations." Holly shook her head, forcing a smile.

"You ok stew?" Alexis asked, putting her hands on her lap; it was obvious that Holly wasn't exactly happy about the news. "What, yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Holly asked, arching an eyebrow at her sister. "You just seem off." Alexis shrugged, looking a little less upbeat. Gail was also confused at Holly's reaction to the news, everyone knew it was happening. Jesse had asked pretty much the whole family for their blessing, Holly, her brothers Kent and James included. "Sorry my heads wrapped up on a case" Holly forces a smile looking up at the waitress as she set three waters on the table, thankful for the small distraction.

Holly had always figured being older than Alexis would mean she would be married before her, but now she was the second oldest Stewarts, and the only one to not be married, Jesse and Alexis had been together so long that it seemed like they were already married. It hurt her a little to think about it and she knew that it was childish to be jealous that her sister was getting married. Lunch went on pretty quietly Alexis filled Gail in on the details of the proposal while Holly pushed her food around her plate trying to shake off her sour mood.

"Ok, so you are all coming to dinner on Thursday right, when we tell mom and dad?" Alexis asked when they walked out of the restaurant. "We will try" Holly muttered, walking a few steps in front of them. "You wait here!" Alexis grabbed Gail's arm holding her back while Holly kept walking to her jeep. "You know why she's pissed right!?" Alexis asked to make sure Holly was out of earshot. "No" Gail shook her head, looking back at Holly. "She's mad that you haven't asked the most important question yet!" Alexis smacked Gail's arm.

"What, why am I at fault, you know she can propose to!" Gail smacked back making sure Holly wasn't listening. "Oh yeah, we all know that she is waiting for you to ask her because you're a raccoon." Alexis smacked Gail again for good measure. "A cat." Gail huffed shoving her hands in her pockets. "What?" Alexis asked, digging in her purse for her keys. "I'm a cat, not a raccoon." Gail sighed, trying not to overthink the whole situation. "I have to go, see you later" Gail hugged Alexis before she walked to the jeep. "You ok?" Gail asked after she climbed in putting her seat belt on. "yep, I'm running late, I need to get back to the morgue" Holly didn't even look at her, she just pulled out of the parking lot and headed back towards the lab. "Let's get married" Gail offered up picking at her nails. "What?!" Holly asked just about slamming on the breaks and pulling over and out of traffic. Gail regretted the statement the second the words left her lips.

"I said let's get married." Gail repeated with a little more enthusiasm knowing that she couldn't take it back now. "Really, you're going to just say it like that!?" Holly huffed turning off the car and resting her head on the steering wheel. "I know that's why you are upset Holly, your mad that you're the only non-married or engaged Stewart, that your little sister is engaged and it pisses you off" Gail was getting frustrated at herself, she had a plan, she was going to do this the right way and now those plans quickly circled the drain. "So that's who you're going to make it better, by nonchalantly offering to marry me!?" Holly was turning red. "You know what, no, don't answer that. We both have to be back at work and I don't feel like talking about this." Holly turned the radio up and pulled back into traffic.

"I might have to work late tonight." Holly threw over her shoulder rushing into the lab, leaving Gail in the parking lot extremely confused and frustrated. She knew that her proposal was jack shit, that it would just upset Holly once she said it, she couldn't just pretend that she hadn't said it. Gail got back into her SUV and headed back to the station.

Tracie sensed Gail's mood the second she made it back to work and quickly and made sure everyone stayed out of her way. "What did you do?!" Steve asked, walking into the detective's pit. "Why did I do something!?" Gail barked not looking up from her computer. "Holly is yelling at the rookies, and you look like a kicked puppy." Steve sat on the edge of her desk.

"I don't want to talk about it Steven, now please leave, some of us have jobs to do." Gail shoved him off her desk. "Fine, just make it better; the ME making rookies cry doesn't look good!" Steve called out before walking out of the pit towards the stairs. Gail wanted to punch someone or something, she wasn't sure exactly what to do, but she needed to get all of the frustration out of her system.

_-Stuck in the office, don't wait up- NERD_

Gail read the text and sighed, she was stuck at work too because they had caught a break in the case she had been working.

_-On a stake out with Tracie, my mom had the kids, you may beat me home.- Detective awesome_

"Please tell me that Steve and Chris did not spend the afternoon setting up flowers and candles for nothing." Tracie sighed starching out in her seat. "Fuck" Gail threw her phone at the back door remembered why she needed to beat Holly home. "Trace, I fucked up." Gail muttered chewing on her lip. "What do you mean you fucked up?" Tracie asked, turning towards the monitors as two people walked out of the building they were watching. "I may have just kind of asked Holly to get married because she was pissed that her sister got engaged. Holly is not happy that she is the only non-married/ engaged Stewart and I didn't really mean to say it, it just happened. I'm pretty sure she isn't going to talk to me for a while and I totally forgot that I had Steve and Chris go to the house. " Gail looked like she was about to start crying as she pulled on the sleeve of her hoodie. "You what?!" Tracie stared at her with wide eyes. "Yeah I fucked up." Gail sighed, reaching for her phone that was against the back door of the van.

Tonight was the night she was going to propose anyways, she had asked for Chris's help setting up flowers and candles to surprise Holly. They were supposed to get home together, Gail was going to let Holly go inside first and then quietly sneak behind her. There was a plan, there was a fucking plan and now it was going to be weird. She knew she wouldn't beat Holly home, and Chris and Steve wouldn't go undone all of their work they had already done, convincing them to help was hard enough. So now the house was set up to be this super romantic night, and Holly was pissed, and had every right to be.

Gail walked into the house just before midnight, Holly's car was not in the garage and the house was dark. Gail was relieved that maybe she could do some damage control, make it look more like an apology, less like a botched proposal. She walked into the kitchen, kicked off her boots, and hung her jacket by the door. "I ruined this didn't I?" Holly asked from the kitchen counter, causing Gail to jump. "Fuck, you scared me." Gail held her chest, looking at Holly, who was sitting in the dark. "I lost my keys after lunch, well more like I threw them behind a shelf and maintenance is going to have to fish them out tomorrow" Holly sighed playing with a rose petal.

"Andy drove me home." Holly offered before looking up at Gail. "I threw a fit because my sister is engaged, and I thought you were going to propose after Sophie gave me the locket, and it's been weeks and you haven't even hinted at it." Holly started crying and Gail walked over and pulled her into her arms. "I'm sorry Gail, I didn't mean to screw this up." Holly cried and Gail laughed to herself. "I'm pretty sure we both screwed this one up nerd. I should have just said it like that in the car." Gail smiled. "There were just a lot of details of doing this, I wanted to make it special to do it right." Gail breathed looking around the room. She could make out the flowers from the light seeping in from the street. "And I ruined it." Holly hugged Gail tighter.

"You sister called me a raccoon today, she knew why you were upset about her engagement." Gail kissed Holly's temple trying to lighten the mood. "What?" Holly asked, looking up at Gail? "She told me to stop being a raccoon" Gail laughed. "I assume she meant cat?" Holly raised an eyebrow and Gail nodded. "So should I try this whole proposal again?" Gail laughed searching Holly's eyes, looking for an answer, something to tell her she was on the right track. Holly didn't say anything she just smiled at Gail.

"No one has ever put up with my shit Holly, people always let me push them away, but you cemented yourself into my life, you are this pillar of good. I never imagined in a million years that I would find someone who was un-phased by my snarky comments, who threw them right back at me. I never thought anyone would fight for me the way you have, you accepted me for who I am and you loved me, and even when I threw a wrench in our plans and adopted Sophie, you loved me and you loved her. We survived 2 years in different countries thousands of miles apart, I wouldn't change our journey, I've grown up since meeting you, we have grown together" Gail laughed wiping the tears from her eyes.

"I want to make our family official. I can't imagine a day without you in it, we are going to be those little old ladies who make fun of our children and our grandchildren." Gail laughed reaching into her pocket for the ring her and Sophie had picked out. "It's time to build a pretty nice tree house up here" Gail laughed watching the tears freely flow from Holly's eyes. "Will you marry me lunchbox?" Gail asked, holding the platinum band out to Holly who was grinning at her. "Yes" Holly smiled, standing up to kiss Gail with everything she had. "Yes" Holly breathed once they broke the kiss, she watched as Gail slid the ring on her finger the stone shining in the soft glow of the kitchen.

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**POST A/N: so…. This story is rated M….and then next chapter will be the reason for the M rating for more reasons than smut.**


	6. Chapter 6

**: Chapter 6**

AN: so this chapter is really long…like I wanted to make it two…or three chapters…but here's one major chapter… also the first 1K or so was added after this chapter was finished.

Also thank you for the continued support, I love each and every one of you!

**Disclaimer: graphic depiction of crime scenes, involving children, read at your own risk.**

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Holly sat in her office the following day unable to wipe the smile off her face, it had been there last night when she went to sleep and this morning when she woke up. She could not get over the fact that she was going to marry Gail Peck. It is all she could think about, Gail had proposed; as much as she had been a brat Gail still wanted to marry her. Gail, the woman who walked into her life and made her whole world change. Holly's life was no longer 100% about work, and moving up in life; it was about her family, her girls, Gail and Sophie.

Alexis had walked into Holly's office and stopped in the doorway, staring at her trying to figure out what alien planet she was on, she could not remember ever seeing Holly this happy. "Complete 180 on the mood their stew." Alexis eyed her suspiciously before finally stepping over the threshold and looking around. Holly's office was simple, a sofa in the against the far wall flanked by floor to ceiling book shelves cluttered with books and a few pictures, a desk with a lamp, and a coat rack.

"What?" Holly glanced up, startled by the intrusion of her thoughts. She followed Alexis's gaze around the room. "Nothing" Alexis laughed, setting takeout boxes on Holly's desk and sitting down across from her. She had never been to the morgue; she avoided it generally at all cost. Alexis lacked the interest in the medical field her family seemed to all have. She opted for a business undergrad and masters instead, the only non-doctor-Stewart.

"So what is the need for this back to back lunch summons?" Alexis asked, unsure of how to talk to her sister considering her reaction to her announcement yesterday. "I wanted to say sorry for being a bitch at lunch yesterday, I really am happy for you and Jesse." Holly laughed, taking off her glasses and moving the files on her desk to make room for them to eat. "Want to explain why you seemed sad about it yesterday?" Alexis asked, knowing the answer to the question already. Holly was an open book; she always knew what was bothering her sister before almost anyone else. "You're really going to make me say it?" Holly asked, chewing on her lip looking around the room.

"Oh yeah, you're going to need to actually say the words" Alexis grinned. "Fine" Holly huffed pushing her hair out of her face, she did not want to put this into words, and she had hoped Alexis would just accept her admitting to being a bitch. "I was jealous, I was jealous that you were engaged before me. For weeks Gail has been dropping these hints, like she was getting ready to propose and I was excited. I wanted her to propose, but the longer she waited the more I freaked out." Holly rambled playing with the edge of a folder on her lap. "Sophie gave me this locket, and Gail said she could give it to me when she was ready, and I assumed it meant when she was ready for me and Gail to get married. So I've been trying to prove just how much I love her the last few weeks, doing little things for her, letting her know I was ready for it too, and then you got engaged." Holly shrugged, trying to think of a better way to explain it; she knew she sounded stuck up.

"Remember when you were 12, and all you wanted for Christmas was a skateboard?" Holly asked finally looking at Alexis. Her sisters poker face was almost as good as Gail's but Holly knew she was about to laugh at her. "Mom and dad gave Kent and James skateboards, and you got a bike. Remember how upset you were that they got what you asked for?" Holly asked taking a deep breath.

"Yeah, I complained so much that James actually switched with me and road a pink bike to school for a month until dad spray painted it black." Alexis laughed sorting the takeout containers on the desk. "And mom was pissed when I fell a few weeks later and broke my elbow." Alexis knew Holly was not exactly excited about the engagement announcement yesterday, but was happy to have an understanding as to why Holly was upset.

"I had just worked myself up, every time I came home and Gail had dinner ready, of she bought a gift I was anticipating a ring, and every time it wasn't a ring I started freaking out. I started to think I had read too much into it, that she did not want to get married, or that the locket was just a neckless she had picked out with Sophie. And yesterday just kind of pulled the wrong thread and all of my emotions unraveled and it wasn't my finest moment in front of either of you." Holly felt like a child trying to explain why she punched her brother for no real reason at all. She had acted like a 10 year old yesterday throwing a fit about her sister's engagement.

"it's not like I bought the new iPhone Holly, Jesse and I have been together for 9 years, there was almost an ultimatum, either get married or have mom and dad adopt him, it's the next step in our relationship. We don't have this epic love story, we just fit together and yes we love each other, I can't picture my life without him, but this isn't some whirlwind romance." Alexis smiled down at her own ring. "You and Gail are going to tell your grandchildren about your break up, make up, and the cross country love affair. Our kids are going to see me and Jesse as boring compared to you and Gail, you're soul mates, the perfect half to complete the other."

Alexis noticed the ring on Holly's finger moments after entering the office, she wanted to wait until her sister brought it up, but she knew why Holly was so happy and nearly giddy. "So did you say yes?" Alexis asked, looking down at the ring on her sister's finger. Holly could not hide it, she was not trying to act as if she wasn't the happiest person alive. "Yes!" Holly held out her hand to show Alexis the ring officially. "Patients paid off?" Alexis examined the ring; it appeared to be wedding band, smooth but had a strip of diamonds running down the middle. Alexis assumed that was to ensure it would not rip Holly's gloves while she worked.

"Nope, still acted like a 10 year old and she almost didn't propose." Holly cringed thinking about the events of yesterday. "We got into it in the car on the way back to work and when I made it home, she had this set up ready, roses, and champagne. I almost fucked it up royally." Holly ran her thumb along the ring remembering Gail professing her love. "I think you acted like a 5 year old, I know Sophie, even though she is now 11 and won't let anyone forget that, she still acts older than you did yesterday," Alexis giggled. "Pretty much" Holly muttered before she started to eat.

They ate in a calm silence, the air between them cleared. Holly loved how they could just talk things out and go back to being best friends. She knew Alexis could read her like an open book. She had missed these moments when she lived in San Francisco, phone calls and Skype calls were not the same as having her sister in the room with her. "When are you telling mom and dad?" Alexis asked with her mouth full. "We don't know yet, Gail and I are telling Sophie tonight, we will work from there." Holly smiled at her sister before looking up at the clock on the far wall. "Ugh, lunch time over." Holly muttered packing up her food and placing her leftovers in the mini fridge under her desk.

"Congratulations, call me when things are figured out, and I forgive you for being an ass." Alexis grinned getting up too quickly hug her sister. "Thanks" Holly gave an embarrassed smile. "I'll talk to you later" Holly followed her sister out of her office towards the lab. She had to check on the new interns Patrick had hired to ensure she wouldn't have to fire any of them this week.

"Dr. Stewart!" Patrick called from down the hall after Holly; he looked like he had been running. "Patrick, slow down, what can I do for you?" Holly asked, looking him over wondering what his flustered appearance was caused by. "Staff Sargent Shaw called, and wants you as the lead on a scene, says it's important and you're the only one he trusts." Patrick blurted out handing Holly a post it with and address written on it. "Thanks." she sighed, so much for a quick and easy day and being home early. If Oliver called her to a scene she would be at this all night.

_-Headed out to a scene, may not be home until late-Nerd_

Holly sent Gail a quick text before retreating back to her office to grab her field kit, jacket, and keys. Holly hoped she would be able to pass this off to Patrick or to one of the other pathologists in the lab so she could be home in time for dinner to tell Sophie about engagement. Being the boss meant delegating the work so she could head home. As Holly settled in her car her phone pinged letting her know, Gail had replied.

_-I will be at the lab in 5 minutes; Oliver asked for an unmarked escort- Detective Awesome_

Holly read the message and got out of her car, setting her bags down by the tire. This sounded complicated and Holly knew she would be calling Andy or Steve to collect Sophie from school. Holly eyed her ring and smiled for a moment before deciding to take it off and put it on the chain for her locket. They had not told anyone from work that they were engaged, Sophie was supposed to know first, after Sophie they would tell their parents, siblings, friends, and colleagues, they had worked that much out last night. Alexis was the exception to the rule because Holly had been a total ass at their lunch the day before.

"Sorry, I was procuring coffee when Oliver called to come pick you up." Gail called out the window of her car before parking. "How did lunch go?" Gail asked quickly exiting the vehicle and grabbing Holly's bags and placing them in the back seat. "Good, she understood why I acted like a bitch yesterday." Holly watched as Gail rush around the car to open her door. "Good" Gail smiled, holding the door open for her. "Hi" Gail grinned, leaning over the door to kiss Holly quickly. "Hi" Holly laughed, buckling herself into the front seat, Gail's car smelled of warm pastries and coffee. "I got you one too" Gail pointed to the cup closest to Holly.

"What's this case?" Holly asked finding a pink box sitting on the dashboard. "I'm not sure, I'm guessing it's bad if he wants you there, unmarked cars, and he sounded pretty shaken up on the phone." Gail sounded sad; the things they saw were enough to make everyone forget about the good in the world. "I've already talked to Andy, she is going to pick up Sophie from school." Gail glared at Holly as she took a warm cookie out of the pastry box. "What's yours is mine now, right?" Holly asked around a mouthful of the cookie. "You're lucky you cute," Gail muttered, pulling into an upscale neighborhood.

"I don't think I dressed right for this." Gail muttered, looking down at her dark wash jeans and button down shirt. The neighborhood had large mass produced houses, much like the one she grew up in. "You and me both" Holly sighed, checking her phone to see if they had any information from the lab.

"Looks like we are going to have to wait to tell Sophie." Holly tucked her necklace into her shirt and met Gail's eyes, feeling guilty for taking it off. "Let's see what's going on." Gail squeezed Holly's thigh before they both got out of her car. "Duncan, what's wrong?" Gail asked, seeing the rookie on the verge of tears by the front door. "It's bad." Duncan wiped his face and tried to regain his composure. "Great." Holly shook her head and called the morgue. "Everyone is working late tonight, no questions, ill fill everyone in once I know exactly what we are dealing with" Holly huffed into the phone. "Just be ready" Holly hung up and collected her bags from the back seat.

"Hey, um" Tracie walked towards them. "just, um." Tracie fidgeted, unlike her normal calm demeanor. "There's a kid guys, its bad." Tracie's eyes started to water. Cases with kids were hard on everyone, most of the time these cases equaled mandatory therapy visits. "Shit." Gail was tempted to reach out and take Holly's hand, Holly had to work on the body and Gail hated that. She hated that she could not keep this one off Holly's work load. "I'm going to head in." Holly brushed past Gail and Tracie into the rather large house.

"This is going to affect all of us." Tracie sighed, walking back into the house with Gail by her side. "What do we know so far?" Gail asked, setting her phone to record before attaching it to the clip on her belt. "Family's work called the cops for a welfare check three days ago, guy said his wife and kid were on vacation and that she must of forgotten to tell her boss. Uniforms left the house and noted that his behavior was normal, didn't seem upset or nervous." Tracie leads her towards the kitchen. "This morning, the husbands work called to say he hadn't been in since then and that they couldn't reach him or his wife so Nick and Duncan came back to check on him and the house." Tracie opened the door to the garage and sighed.

"Collins and Moore found Mr. Harris hanging in the garage, they could see him when they checked the house when no one answered the door." Tracie pointed towards the window and to the extension cord hanging from the rafters. "On preliminary checks of the house, it appeared that no one else was home, but Nick noticed something off about the basement" Tracie pointed to the stairs and started walking ahead of Gail. "The basement reeks of bleach, paint, and wet cement." Tracie walked into the basement where Holly stood taking pictures with the crime scene techs.

"False wall, found the son and his wife behind it, tarps covering the floor." Tracie, pointed to where the techs had removed the drywall along the far side of the room. Gail wanted to gag; the amount of blood on the tarps and the bodies was sickening. Everyone in the room remained quiet, it was uneasy and no one knew what to say to make anything better. Tracie looked at Gail as she surveyed the room. The finished basement had a couch and large television with multiple gaming systems attached, family photos were placed on almost every surface. Other than the false wall and the scene behind it, the room otherwise appeared untouched, spotless, and suburban.

"Because of the neighborhood, and the fact that it's a whole family, everyone above our pay grade and Oliver's wants this kept as quiet as possible until we know more about the case." Tracie watched as Holly instructed the lab tech to put the bodies in bags and to collect the tarps covering the floor. Holly quickly picked up her bag and headed back to the garage to the husband who was lying in a body bag already.

"Who cut him down?" Holly asked, looking at the extension cord and at the guy lying on the floor. "We did." Nick sighed, looking at Duncan, who had made his way back into the house. "We tried CPR, he wasn't stiff when Collins and I arrived on scene." Duncan blurted out looking at Nick then Tracie and Gail. "It's ok Officer Moore, I just need to ask." Holly offered a force smile and checked the body. "Gail, can you grab the thermometer out of my bag, please?" Holly asked, pointing to her kit near Gail's feet.

"Ambient temperature of the room is 22.7 C." Gail stated, handing Holly the liver thermometer. "Thanks." Holly moved Mr. Harris's shirt so she could place the thermometer. "35.6 C, I put the time of death within the last 2-3 hours." Holly pulled the thermometer out and placed it into an evidence bag. "Guys let's get him back to the morgue, he will go to Dr. McAndrew's." Holly pulled off her gloves and put her things back in her kit.

"Can you take me back to the morgue?" Holly asked looking at Gail who seemed paler than normal. "actually, can you stay with Holly, you have a better understanding of Holly's reports, and I think someone who can relay info back quickly should be there" Tracie asked Gail before making a note in her notepad.

Gail was lost in her own thoughts looking around the room committing every detail to memory. "Who called in the welfare check, do you have the number?" Gail asked completely ignoring Tracie and Holly's questions. "Um, the same number called in both, the guy and his wife worked for a brokerage firm downtown different departments though, could have been HR." Nick offered looking up from his notepad. "This isn't a murder suicide." Gail breathed, looking around the room again. "Why do you say that?" Tracie asked, looking around the room trying to figure out what Gail had noticed.

"That rafter it at least 8 feet high, there is no access point for Mr. Harris to have gotten up that high to tie the cord around the beam. He also didn't have enough force to hang himself without dropping." Gail pointed out, the garage is bare of clutter, neat, and there were no chairs, ladders, of stools in sight. "Did you guys move anything?" Gail asked, looking at Nick and Duncan. "No." they both confirmed looking around the room. "I'll have cause of death once I'm back at the lab" Holly smiled at her fiancé, Gail had a way of putting puzzles together quickly. "Right, yeah, let's go." Gail pulled her keys out of her pocket and turned off the recorder on her phone. Gail and Holly walked out of the house towards her car in silence, the weight of the scene sitting heavy on their minds.

"Call me once you have anything, I'll dig into this guy's background and see what I can dig up." Tracie followed them out to Gail's car. "Sam is staying on scene while the techs finish up." Tracie glanced at Sam, he paced in front of the house on the phone. "It's going to be a long night." Gail muttered before opening the passenger door for Holly. "Who has Sophie?" Tracie asked, looking around the neighborhood, no one had gathered outside of their houses, it was still calm. "Andy is picking her up from school." Gail walked around the car to the driver's door. "I'll call you once I know anything."

Gail sat reading the background checks for the Hariss's that Tracie had sent over while Holly started removing the clothing from the wife. "Babe, can you give me a hand?" Holly asked, pointing to the tools on the other side of the table. "Yeah" Gail quickly put on a pair of gloves, walking over to where Holly was working. "Thanks." Holly was dreading this examination. With the amount of blood that had soaked into the clothes and hair it made it hard to determine where it had come from. "I need the scissors" Holly pointed out and Gail quickly handed them over. "So the husband's background came back clean, he had a few speeding tickets as a kid, but he had a perfect record otherwise. Perfect credit, no iffy bank problems." Gail explained, watching Holly cut away the shirt and jeans the woman had been wearing.

"the wife has had two DUI's in the last year, no possession charges, but suspected cocaine use, she never submitted to a drug test and 27 wasn't able to get a warrant the last time she was arrested" Gail moved the tray to Holly's side of the table. "You're thinking this is a drug issue?" Holly asked swabbing under her nails. "I don't know, I'm willing to put money on the husband being drugged and strung up." Gail went back to her perch at Holly's desk. "Interesting theory." Holly muttered, getting lost in her work. "Fuck." she sighed, looking over the women on her table, finally able to see the extent of the damage and presumably the source of the blood. Gail watched as Holly examined the body, making comments into her recorder and taking pictures.

"What I can tell you right now." Holly sighed, pulling off her gloves and moved away from the table. "Female, 37, 7 gunshots, 5 to the upper torso, 2 to the head." Holly looked at the smaller body at the other end of the room. "I would put the time of death based on liver temp at 12 hours ago" Holly watching Gail dial her phone. "Do need anything?" Gail asked following Holly's gaze. "Kids are the hardest" Holly muttered, reaching for her coffee sitting on the desk, Oliver had sent it over as a semi thank you with promises of drinks at the penny when the case closed.

Holly was placing Mrs. Hariss's clothes into bags when Dr. McAndrew's came into her exam room. "Preliminary report shows this is not a suicide, found multiple injection sights on the victim's neck, cause of death are tentatively put at asphyxiation. However I still need to wait for the tox screen to come back" he leaned in the doorway of Holly's lab. "Tech's didn't find any sign of forced entry or prints?" Holly asked not looking up from her work. "None, they did find a syringe in the trash behind the house, the lab is running it now." he offered looking at Gail for a minute as she relayed everything into her phone. "Thank you Patrick." Holly took a deep breath before cutting away the clothes on the boy. "Do you need help?" he offered looking at the ground. "No, I should be fine, thank you." she sighed grabbing a scalpel. Patrick left her lab and Gail watched carefully as Holly removed the blood soaked clothes. Holly hated making anyone in the lab work on kids, she knew how hard it is to keep it together in these cases.

After cutting away his clothes and taking the pictures she needed Holly started to clean the body carefully. The boy had been 8 years old, small for his age, dirty blonde hair, and freckles. Gail thought he looked a lot like Steve did when they were younger. Gail stared at the blue shirt and jeans on the table next to Holly, the boy's sneakers and socks, she could not help but think about her own daughter. Remembering Sophie's reaction to her mother dying, the months of therapy that followed. She had to quickly rid herself of those thoughts before she started crying. Holly tried to do that same thing, thinking about Sophie right now would only make this harder. At first glance he seemed asleep, his body did not appear harmed in any way you could easily find, unlike his mother who had been riddled with bullets.

"second victim, male, 8 years old, 24.7 Kg, 1.4 meters in height, no signs of promoting or postmortem trauma, such as abuse, 3 injection sights found along the inferior edge of the mandible. No defensive wounds, tox screen should determine what he was given." Holly looked at Gail and walked back to the woman on the table next to her wanting to get everything done for the night. "That should be everything for now, I need to start the autopsies and that will take a while." Holly sighed, unable to meet Gail's eyes. "If you need anything, call me, I'm only a few minutes away" Gail breathed, looking at the boy on the table and back at Holly. "I'll see you at home later on tonight." Holly muttered before putting on a face shield and new gloves.

Gail was sitting at her desk in the station combing through phone records when her phone pinged.

_-I am done for the day, headed over to drop off the reports to you and trace- Nerd_

There had been no breaks in the case so far, only more sketchy details about the house. They found a panic room in the master bedroom that looked like they were preparing for the world to end. The family had no loans, no car payments, their phones were paid off for a two year contract up front, as were their gym memberships, and cable bills. The Harris's had at least a 2 year stock of food in their house, MRE's and water supplies, and what Nick declared bug out bags.

"No traces of drugs in the house, or Mrs. Harris's car." Dov barged into the detectives' offices and sighed. "Thanks for checking, we still don't know what's going on either, Holly is on her way over with the autopsy reports now." Gail leaned back in her chair, both physically and emotionally exhausted. "So the husband was drugged and hung up, the wife shot 7 times, and the kid was drugged with no sign of any trauma." Tracie sighed, looking at the board they had information pinned too. "Three separate killing patters, but it seems the wife was the main target due to the overkill." Tracie chewed on her lip pointing to the board next to her desk. "No drugs were found in the house, they're still trying to figure out if there were any in her system." Gail offered pushing her hair back causing it to stand on end.

"No drugs were found in her system, but the husband's tox screen came back with high doses of Methamphetamine, as did the boy's." Holly walked in clutching a stack of files to her chest. She looked like she had been crying, puffy eyes, both blood shot. "The son also had high doses of sevoflurance found in anesthesia, and what appears to be a mixture of cleaning products." Holly set the files on Tracie's desk. "The mixture in the kids system caused a quick overdose, and the autopsy confirms that the husband was drugged, but the cause of death is asphyxiation. Patrick sent off hair samples to the lab to see if he was using prior to his death" Holly sat on the edge of Gail's desk looking over the information board. "So…we still have nothing." Sam huffed from the doorway. "Ok guys, go home, get some rest, we will start back at this in the morning." He started cleaning up his desk.

"Need a ride home?" Holly asked, smoothing the sides of Gail's hair, leaving the top sticking up. "That sounds amazing." Gail leaned into Holly's touch. "Why don't we take Sophie out for ice cream and tell her, I need some good news to end the day." Holly leaned forward and kissed Gail's forehead. "I just want to hug her." Gail pouted; she figured it was harder to work on cases with kids once you have them yourself. "Me too." Holly pulled Gail out of her chair and followed her out of the station.

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**AN: If you made it to the end of this mini novel you have my utmost respect and I send you virtual hugs and kisses!**

 


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

AN: This is another long chapter and the case continues in this chapter, but is less detailed than the last. Sorry its up kind of late had to work overtime today

**Disclaimer: In case you were wondering, I do not own the show.**

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"Are you going to call Andy?" Holly checked her mirrors once they had left the station and gotten to Holly's jeep. "I sent her a text, she said that they ate dinner about 40 minutes ago, I figured we could get something to eat and pick her up after?" Gail ran her hand along Holly's thigh. "Something quick?" Holly asked, pulling out of the station parking lot, traffic was sparse and relatively calm on the street. It's amazing how the city could be completely unaware of the horrors the city detectives, cops, and ME's office have seen that day. "Yeah, I just want to eat something, I need energy before giving Sophie sugar." Gail yawned playing with the radio.

"Gail Peck wants food before ice cream, never in my life did I think I would see the day." Holly grinned at Gail before focusing back on the road. "Someone has to be the adult." Gail shook her head, pointing to a diner at the end of the road. "Breakfast for dinner." Holly pulled over to park on the side of the street. "Bacon, pancakes, and home fries." Gail sang following Holly out of the car and into the diner with a grin.

"Today was rough." Gail sulked in her seat looking around at the other people, there were only 3 other occupied tables. "What sucks is it's not over, we still don't know anything." Holly reached out to take Gail's hand. "Where's your ring?" Gail asked, running her finger along Holly's ring finger. She didn't sound upset, but was concerned by its absence on Holly's finger, "I took it off before I went to the scene, we agreed on telling Sophie first, I didn't want anyone asking questions." Holly quickly took off her locket and set the ring on the table while she refastened it around her neck. Since Sophie had given it to her, she only took it off while showering. "Soon, we tell Sophie tonight, our parents tomorrow, and everyone else on Monday." Gail slid the ring back onto Holly's finger much like she had done the night before.

Holly smiled at Gail, unable to figure out how she had managed to fall helplessly in love with Gail, and to earn her love in return. They had a family, a little girl, as much as they had done everything backwards, they were getting married, and they had made it to a point in life where all the pieces fell into place. "Will Sophie be ok with this?" Holly worried, running her thumb along Gail's knuckles. "She gave you the locket." Gail blushed, her ears and chest running a deep crimson color. "Sophie loves you Hol." Gail eyes said everything Holly ever needed to know, they shone with love and adoration. "What if she had never given me the locket?" Holly asked, watching the waitress walk towards them. "I may have waited 7 years." Gail laughed squeezing Holly's hand. "I would have waited a lifetime." Holly smiled at her ring and then at Gail. "I'm happy you didn't have to wait that long."

Gail could hear Sophie giggling from outside Andy and Sam's apartment. "That laugh makes my day better." Gail leaned into Holly before ringing the doorbell. "Hey!" Andy had a smile plastered on her face when she opened the door. "Hey" Gail followed Andy inside, pulling Holly with her. "She's washing up right now, should be out in a few." Andy pointed towards the bathroom. "Thanks a million Andy." Gail sighed sinking onto Andy's couch. "Sam said the scene was rough, a little kid?" Andy picked up Sophie's homework that had taken over her kitchen table. "Yeah, the whole family." Holly muttered, looking over at Andy.

"Sam went from the station to the penny, must have been a rough." Andy looked up as Sophie can out of the bathroom. "MOM!" Sophie ran at Gail and jumped to land on both her and Holly. "Oomph" Gail and Holly laughed in unison, before hugging Sophie. "Are you going to be my mom now too?" Sophie asked, taking Holly's hand and looking at the ring. "Um." Holly watched Gail trying not to panic. "That's what happened to Jordan, his mom got married and now he has a new dad." Sophie stated matter of factly examining at the ring. "We are getting married" Holly smiled at Sophie and Andy's head popped up from looking at her phone. "Seriously?!" Andy looked at both Gail and Holly. "Yeah" Gail nodded, holding Sophie tight to her.

"SO IM GOING TO HAVE THREE MOM'S NOW! SWEET!" Sophie jumped off the couch and grinned. "This is going to be awesome, mom said when you got married, I get to pick out a cool dress!" Sophie jumped around the room, all eyes on her. "Did she now?" Holly looked at Gail and back at Sophie. "Yep, replaced as favorite" Gail muttered as Sophie ran up to Andy. "Aunt Andy, this is going to be awesome!" she gasped and ran over to hug Holly again.

"Why don't we go for ice cream, and head home?" Gail asked hearing Sam's truck pull up to the building the unmistakable sound of his supped up truck. "Yes!" Sophie grinned, grabbing her backpack. "I assume this is supposed to be under wraps for a while?" Andy inquired helping Sophie into her jacket. "We will announce it at the penny on Monday night, we just wanted to tell Sophie and our families first." Gail stood up pulling Holly off the couch. "So naturally if Tracie finds out you knew before her, be prepared for her anger." Holly started laughing at Gail but knew it was true. "I won't say anything to anyone." Andy made the motion of zipping her lips before opening the door for a very drunk Sam.

"Hi!" Sam called in a sing song voice. "Hi Uncle Sam" Sophie took Holly's hand, looking up at him questioningly. "What's up my favorite niece?!" Sam held his hand out for a high five. "I'm your only niece" Sophie rolled her eyes, but high fived Sam anyways. "True story kid, still my favorite, though." he nodded walking to the couch. "Can you guys give me a ride back to the station?" Chris appeared in the doorway holding out Sam's keys to Andy. "Yeah, no problem." Holly pulled her keys out of her pocket and reaching for Gail's hand.

"Thanks for driving home!" Sam yelled landing on the couch. "No problem." Chris shook his head and glanced at Andy. "You ok to Sam sit?" Chris asked, scratching his face. "Yeah" Andy laughed, looking back at Sam how was half asleep already.. "Ready?" Sophie tugged on Holly's hand. "Yes" Holly smiled back at Gail, who just nodded in confirmation. They all piled into Holly's jeep and drove back towards the stations. Sophie watched Chris like a hawk. "Sup kid?" Chris asked, looking at Sophie. "Why did you drive uncle Sam home?" Sophie glanced at Chris while playing with the straps on her backpack. "Because he couldn't drive himself home from work." Chris shrugged, looking at Gail in the rear view mirror, he wasn't sure if he should tell her the truth. "That was nice of you." Sophie shrugged when they pulled into the station parking lot. "Thanks for the ride; I'll catch you all later!" Chris jumped out and ran to his truck.

"Can we get ice cream and eat at home?" Sophie asked, picking up Gail's phone and typing in the password. "That sounds great Sophie." Holly pulled out of the parking lot to the station as Gail looked out the window lost in her own thoughts. "Mom, what happened to Tetris?" Sophie complained unable to find her game before holding the phone out to Gail. "It's still there love, just in the folder with your name, I kept playing them at work." Gail pointed to the folder before she touched the screen and Sophie's games came up. "Yes!" Sophie grinned, looking back at the screen. Sophie's laugh and smile made both Gail and Holly's day better, and her excitement over their engagement meant the world to Holly.

"Everything ok?" Holly reached out to squeeze Gail's hand. "Yeah, just thinking." Gail breathed, looking at Holly. Gail was trying to figure out the case, why the house's had panic rooms, why there were different killing patterns, Why the family, the kid, why the husband died after the wife and boy. "Mom, are you coming?!" Sophie huffed, opening Gail's door. "Of course I am." Gail shook herself out of her thoughts unbuckling her seatbelt and following Holly and Sophie into the ice cream shop, forcing the case to the back of her mind.

"Peck" Gail huffed into her phone; it was 3 AM, the number on the alarm clock harshly telling her the ungodly hour in a violent green glow. "Go back to sleep." Holly pulled Gail closer to her and whined when her phone rang from her night stand. "This can't be good." Holly complained and rolled over to answer her phone. "I'll escort her; should be about 30." Gail hung up and rolled out of bed. "I'll make coffee while you shower, we have another scene." Gail rubbed her eyes before leaving their room to head to the kitchen.

Gail heard a car pull up outside while she waited for the coffee to finish thinking McNally had come to pick of Sophie while on shift. "If you ring the doorbell McNally, I'll kill you." Gail muttered under her breathe walking to the door. "When did I give you a key?" Gail asked as Chloe let herself into the house with her uniform on. "Andy gave it to me, I'm off shift, she just started, she said I should come and take Sophie to school." Chloe set her stuff down and followed Gail into the kitchen.

"Why would McNally send you, she isn't our baby sitter." Gail was contemplating calling her mom to come pick Sophie up for school. "She asked if I could come, your mom's at the station looking over the evidence." Chloe kicked her shoes off and slumped into a stool at the counter. "You don't need to do this price; you should go home and get some sleep." Gail looked up as Holly walked downstairs, dressed for work with damp hair. "No worries ill drop her off at school and head home after. No need to wake her up." Chloe smiled as Gail handed her a cup of coffee. "I appetite it Chloe" Gail walked up stairs to quickly shower and dress for work. Gail was happy that her relationship with her fellow rookies had been completely different than when she first met Holly. They got along much better and she could truly call them her friends now.

_-I gave Price my key, your mom's here, and I am on shift- Andy_

_-Thanks, she just arrived; you know every time we get called to a scene, you do not have to watch Sophie- Detective awesome._

_-You do not have a baby sitter Gail; it is me or your mom. Both of us are at the station. - Andy_

_-I really appreciate it- Detective awesome_

"I'm stopping for coffee on the way, I need to pick up some for McNally and Nash." Gail muttered as she came downstairs pulling on her jacket. "You need to give me coffee too." Holly pouted and Gail grinned at how cute Holly was when she was grumpy. "Yes, you too." Gail picked up Holly's field kit and purse. "Thank you Price." Gail took Holly's hand and walked into the garage. "This sucks, we only fell asleep less than 3 hours ago." Holly pouted sipping the coffee that seemed to be surgically attached to her hand.

"Also, why does McNally think she is our baby sitter?" Holly asked, eyeing Gail. Gail couldn't help the warm feeling in her heart from hearing Holly say  _our_  baby sitter. "She pretty much watches Sophie more than anyone." Gail shrugged, Andy just seemed to always be there. "At first she was convinced it was the only way to make up for the whole nick thing and now it just works I guess." Gail shrugged looking at Holly.

The scene was in the same upscale neighborhood as the day before only a few blocks away. Once they were out of the car and into the house Gail quickly turned on her recorder and left to find Andy and Tracie. "So, elderly couple, in their early 50's, one shot multiple times, the other seems to have been smothered." Tracie sighed taking the coffee Gail held out. "Neighbors heard a window break and called it in, the front door had been smashed in when we arrived on the scene." Andy pointed to her new rookie in the corner. "The parents?" Gail questioned, looking at the pictures on the wall.

"Yeah." Tracie sighed, looking over her shoulder at the photos of the family. "Elaine's at the station looking through the files right now." Tracie shrugged and Gail sighed. "She doesn't want the shit storm of a serial killer." This case quickly turned into a giant shit storm, 5 bodies in 2 days, all related, similar wounds, the press would have a field day with this case.

"We have to be missing something. I'm going upstairs to find Holly." Gail handed Andy her coffee and made her way up the stairs looking at the pictures on the wall l as she went. "James," Gail called from the landing. "Can you collect the family pictures and send them to the station, please?" Gail pointed to the pictures on the wall. "Yeah, will do." James nodded, pulling evidence bags out of his kit to place the pictures in.

"Whole family." Holly muttered, pulling the thermometer out of the older woman's abdomen. "Same MO, unloaded a clip, 2 to the head, 5 to the chest, looks like he was smothered with the pillow." Holly sighed pulling out her camera to take more pictures. "Get them back to the lab once you have everything you need." Holly motioned to the techs before looking back at Gail. "That's different." Gail picked up a photo from the night stand. "So there's Carter Harris, Carter Harris Sr., Ivy Harris, and the mystery kid." Gail walked up to the other photos in the room that were missing the younger kid. "Trace!" Gail called out of the room. "Yeah?" Tracie walked into the room with Andy in tow. "Who's the kid?" Gail handed her the picture. "All the other photos in the room, and in the hall are of their son Jr., June, and Grandson Quinn, but this picture has a new face." Gail watched Tracie look over the photo "Let's find out." Tracie pulled out her phone looking around at the other pictures.

"Original background check came back with no their family members, only the son." Andy flipped through her phone looking for the notes. "Can you run a thorough check on everyone in the family? Both sides." Gail watched Tracie pace around the room muttering yes's and no's into the phone. "No info on who the kid is, they don't have a background as foster parents or mentors" Tracie handed the photo to James the crime tech. "Junes parents are leaving Vancouver in 2 hours, we will see if they know anything." Tracie sighed looking around the room.

Andy and Gail watched as the techs put the bodies into body bags and loaded them on stretchers. "I need to head back to the lab." Holly reached out and touched Gail's forearm breaking her concentration. "I can drive you on my way back to the station, or you can take my car and I'll ride back with Tracie." Gail offered, meetings Holly's gaze for a moment. "Can you drive me, I'm too tired." Holly packed her things in her kit and stretching. "Time of death is within the last 2 hours, I'll have more later on this morning." Holly watched as Gail quickly turned off the recorder on her phone and pulled her keys out of her pocket. "Thanks Holly, sorry for dragging you out of bed." Tracie took note of the time of death and put her phone back to her ear.

"I'll meet you guys at the station." Gail stated before she followed Holly back to the car. "You ok?" Gail opened the passenger door for her. "It's too early in the morning for this kind of crazy." Holly muttered, getting into the car, it was tough to tell if she was upset or just tired. "I'm not sure there is a right time of day for this kind of crazy." Gail closed Holly's door and walked around to the driver's side.

The drive back to the morgue had been relatively quiet, the chatter from the police radios sporadically interrupting the silence. "I'll stop by with coffee later." Gail reached out to run her knuckle along Holly's jaw. "Promise?" Holly asked facing Gail. "Yes, I promise." Gail leaned forward and kissed Holly softly. "Call me if you need anything today." Gail breathed against Holly's lips. "We both chose our jobs Gail, some days just suck more than others." Holly pulled Gail forward again basking in the softness of her lips, allowing it to calm her down. "I love you." Holly pulled away searching Gail's eyes. "I love you too." Gail smiled, getting out of the car to help Holly with her bags. "Let's see if we can break the case today." Holly disappeared into the morgue.

"Ok, so there are 5 victims, 1 child, 2 adult males, 2 adult females, both women shot 7 times, their husbands died from asphyxiation, and the boy was drugged." Tracie tapped her pen on the desk. "Both houses have panic rooms with months of food, all bills paid off, steady jobs, no weird bank transactions." Tracie continued. "What do we have on the brother?" Sam nursed his coffee, obviously suffering from a pretty massive hangover. "Junes brother is the guy in the picture, background information is being sent by the Vancouver PD, but not much else." Tracie closed the folder on the desk in frustration. "June's parents' land in about two hours, we don't have much on him in the system, and they will fill us in." Gail looked up from her screen.

"Was Hariss Sr. drugged?" Gail checked the crime scene photos for what seemed like the millionth time. "No, smothered with his pillow, what appears to be a knee to the chest to keep him down according to the bruise." Tracie read the report before standing up. "I'm going for lunch, peck I want you in with the parents when they arrive!" Sam called before walking off to find Andy, all of them were frustrated by the lack of all information. "I'm going to go find Steve, want to pick up Holly and get lunch with us?" Tracie glanced up at Gail while cleaning up her desk. "I'm going to go take a nap in her office." Gail locked her computer before picking up her phone.

_-Bring soup- Nerd_

_-Be there in 15- Detective awesome_

"Call me when the escorts pick up the parents from the airport!" Gail yelled seeing Sam getting into his truck. "Will do." Sam called back. It had been a long day; the foot canvas in the neighborhoods had turned up no leads. The family background checks looked the same, nothing that would cause worry, and the interviews with friends and co-workers brought on general consensus is that the Harris's were the ideal family units, the husband and the wife had no issues, and the parents were ideal community members.

When Gail walked into Holly's office with soup and coffee Holly seemed like she was on her last leg of energy. "How much time do you have for lunch?" Gail asked, setting the food on Holly's desk. "I have an hour and a half before I should be at the station to explain my reports to everyone." Holly stood up and stretched. "Good." Gail breathed pulling Holly into a hug and holding her tight. "Why?" Holly breathed in the scent of Gail's soap. "We should eat and then nap, I'm exhausted" Gail muttered against Holly's hair. "That's why I love you, you are so smart" Holly pulled back to look at Gail properly. "Hi" Holly leaned forward to kiss Gail quickly "Hi" Gail smiled kissing Holly's cheek.

Holly's day had been spent elbow deep in her work, trying to figure out if Mr. Harris Sr. was drugged as well, if there was a lap in a time of death like the other murders, looking for the smallest piece of evidence to lead them anywhere. "Do you guys have any leads?" Holly inquired once their lunch had been finished and they were cuddled on the couch in her office. "Not a damn thing, Junes parents' land in a little while and they may have more information for us to go on." Gail sighed running her fingers along the small of Holly's back. Comfortable to just be close to Holly right now.

"From what I can tell by the mixture given to Quinn, he didn't feel a thing; the anesthetic was given about 40 minutes before everything else." Holly leaned farther into Gail, realizing that her couch was not meant for cuddling or napping, there was little space for the two of them. "I hate my job today." Gail muttered, running her hand further up the back of Holly's shirt. "I need tell her parents that not only did their child die, but so did their only grandchild. And we have no idea why it happened, or who may have done it." Gail did not like breaking the news to parents, she was a homicide detective now, her job like Holly is centered on death, and other people's pain.

"What about the kid in the picture?" Holly tangled her legs with Gail's trying to get more comfortable, and give them both more room. "We have nothing on him, no driving record, work history, address. Vancouver is sending us what they have." Gail muttered, making sure the alarm on her phone was set to wake them both up. "When this case is over, I'm sleeping for an entire weekend." Holly laughed fading to the feeling of Gail's hand on her back. "You and me both." Gail smiled, kissing Holly's forehead. "We can put the WII in our room for Sophie." Holly sighed contently before letting sleep overtake her.

"Why is your hair messed up?" Chloe asked, walking into the station for shift change. "I took a nap on Holly's couch, only got a few hours of sleep last night because the call came in at 3 AM." Gail rubbed her eyes; she had been staring at her computer since she came back from lunch. "Still nothing?" Chloe set a key on Gail's desk looking over the file quickly. "No, I'm about to interview the parents right now, Nick is on his way in with them." Gail picked up the key and put it in her pocket, making a mental note to give it back to Andy the next time she saw her. "No evidence on the bodies, none in the house." Gail sighed, picking up the case file and standing up. "Well, Oliver said I'm with you guys on this with Nick and Andy." Chloe followed Gail towards the interview room.

"It's going to be a long night Chloe." Gail cringed, seeing her mom walk into the station. "Yep"  
Chloe squeaked out before quickly running into the locker room away from the Superintendent. "Mom, I thought you were picking Sophie up from school." Gail glanced at her phone, it was just after 3, Sophie would be out of school already. "Your father picked her up and is taking her and Leo to the movies." Eliane eyed Gail's messed up hair and ruffled appearance.. "Where's Steve?" Gail checked her phone again, trying to see if she missed something. "Your brother is on a stakeout for the night. I came to ask you and Tracie if it would be ok for us to bring them both to the cabin for the weekend with us since it looks like it's going to be a long one with this case." Elaine reached out and smoothed Gail's hair.

"Oh Tracie, good, I wanted to ask you to" Elaine nodded when Tracie rounded the corner looking equally as flustered as Gail. "Ask me what?" Tracie looked between the pair, trying to hold back a yawn. "Bill and I are heading to the cabin for the weekend, and would like to take Leo and Sophie with us since you are all swamped with cases." Elaine looked quite pleased with herself for thinking of the idea. "I'm ok with it; I know Sophie can't be with sitters all weekend." Gail muttered, pulling the key Chloe had put on her desk out of her pocket. "Are you sure?" Tracie asked Elaine not sure if she should be ok with the offer. "Of course." Elaine stated matter of factly.

"Um, yeah, that sounds great, thank you." Tracie shrugged, knowing better than to tell the superintendent no. "Um, I don't know when I'll be home, or when Holly will be home." Gail held out the key to their house. "Lovely, Steve has also given us the key only to be used, if Tracie agreed." Elaine pocketed the key and smiled. "We will be back Sunday evening in time for bedtime." Elaine pivoted and walked back out of the station leaving Gail and Tracie both dumbfounded.

"Is it just me of is this invasion of the body snatchers since your mother now has two adopted grandchildren?" Tracie shook her head not sure how to react to Elaine being at the station. "Nope, not just you." Gail shook her head before walking into the observation room with Tracie. "So, we know it wasn't the parents, they were both in court during the time of death time frame for all five murders." Tracie sighed looking through her notes. "Well, let's see what we can get from them." Gail quickly fixed her shirt and her hair before walking into the interview room June Harris's parents were sitting in.

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**AN: The interview will be included in the next chapter**

 


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

AN: so…today is not the Wednesday I had intended to post this chapter. I know, but someone took an impromptu trip to London, and by someone I mean my laptop took the trip without me because my roommate packed the wrong computer before leaving the country. So Chapter 8 has been on vacation without me for a week : (

Every one of your reviews, favorites, and follows brings a smile to my face, thank you for continuing to read!

Anyways…here is chapter 8!  **Be warned… details' describing a crime scene, chapter 9 goes back to happy times!**

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June Harris's parents sat in the interview room together, Gail noted how the Mr. Dragomirov sat close to his wife, his arm protectively wrapped around her shoulder. He wasn't tall, maybe 170 CM, muscular, his arms causing the material of his button up shirt to stretch. His wife was small 150 CM tall, slim, she looked motherly, Gail couldn't think to describe her differently.

"Peck!" Sam yelled just as she was about to walk into the interview room, she glanced back at him, he still seemed worse for wear from his hangover. "The parents in there?" he stopped just short of the observation room door. "Yeah, they came in with Collins 15 minutes ago." Gail tapped the file along her leg impatiently; she didn't want to make them wait much longer. "Go easy on them, they aren't suspects." Sam nodded quickly before walking into the observation room where Tracie stood. Gail shook her head in confusion before walking into the interview room to greet the couple.

Mr. and Mrs. Dragomirov's heads shot up, they both had had been crying, understandable, considering the reason they were in Toronto. "Mr. Dragomirov, Mrs. Dragomirov, I am detective Gail Peck, and I am one of many detectives working to solve this case. I am very sorry for your loss." Gail gave a polite smile and sat at the table across from the couple. "Can you tell us what happened?" Mr. Dragomirov asked, placing his hands on the table. Gail took note of his Russian accent and open posture, he wasn't being defensive. "Unfortunately at this time, sir, the information is limited. We know that your daughter was killed before your grandson and son in law, the medical examiner determined a 4 hour time gap between her death and that of her family." Gail opened the file; she had made sure to remove the crime scene photos before walking in.

"Can you tell us if your daughter had been on anyone's bad side, if anyone would have it out for her and the Harris's?" Gail looked between the two, checking for the smallest change in expression. "Our daughter was a stock trader, I'm sure she was." Mrs. Dragomirov shook her head, she did not have a Russian accent, she sounded American, from a southern state Gail guessed. "Харрис был мошенник, это бы не удивило меня, если он виноват за все это." Mr. Dragomirov huffed, looking at his wife for a moment before turning his attention back to Gail.

"Harris is a scammer and you wouldn't be surprised if he caused this, why do you say that?" Gail asked looking back at the two way mirror. "You speak Russian?" Mr. Dragomirov huffed, frustrated to not have the privacy he thought he had. "Yes Mr. Dragomirov, I speak Russian." Gail smiled politely, quickly taking a note in the file before looking back up at the couple. "Please call me Anton." He nodded before looking at his wife. "Mr. Harris founded the brokerage company my daughter and her husband worked for. I tried to tell June that it wasn't a good Idea to go into business with her in-laws, I knew them, I knew their business. Our kids all grew up together, and I knew they were dirty, their business is shady." Anton pursed his lips, Gail noticed his eyes watering. "Can you think of anyone in the company that would have done this?" Gail resisted the urge to walk out of the room, she still wasn't great when it came to dealing with other people's emotions, especially when they cried. "Our daughter received threats from many clients when their stocks didn't do as well as they were expected to. Her company should have a file that with information." Anton reached out for his wife's hand.

"Why is your son in one of their family photos?" Gail asked making a note to check into the firms files. "Our son wanted to be part of their family, The Harris's they gave their son everything, he never worked for anything and Eli wanted that life. Our children earned their keep, they did chores, they worked for our law firm, they earned an allowance, and Eli didn't like that he had to work for it. He wanted to be adopted by them. Carters was his best friend in school, up until he started dating June. Around that time their friendship fell apart and our son turned to drugs and disowned us." Mrs. Dragomirov explained meeting Gail's eyes, she was on the verge of tears again. "Mrs. Dragomirov, do you think your son would hurt them?" Gail handed over a box of tissues. "Eli is in Vancouver" Anton shook his head not giving her a chance to offer.

"He is in rehab, or the records that were sent over show he is in a facility for drug treatment." Gail double checked the file and Anton nodded in confirmation. " He is in rehab yes, He asked us not to visit him anymore. His wishes have been made clear, he doesn't wish to be part of our family." Mrs. Dragomirov sighed, looking at her husband before she handed over a slip of paper. "This is Eli's phone number, he has not been told about his sister." She started crying, turning into her husband's arms. "Thank you, if you need anything pleases call." Gail left her card on the table and walked out of the interview room. "Ms. Peck!" Anton called before Gail had closed the door. "Yes?" Gail walked back into the room, making sure to close the door behind her.

"The person you should look into is Jarrod Tills, he tried to force our daughter into a relationship a few months ago. He spiked a few of her drinks, I'm sure you have seen the arrests that were made, she drove home not knowing about the drugs until it was too late." Anton held his wife in his arms. "Why didn't she tell the police?" Gail quickly flipped through the file in her hand. There were no records of her reporting a stalker or harassment. "She didn't want to cause trouble, people liked her, and she didn't cause issues. Against our wish's she asked us to stay quiet, that she would find a way to take care of it. She thought if she didn't tell anyone he would leave her alone." Anton shook his head hugging his wife tighter to him. Gail couldn't imagine the pain he and his wife were in, the whole situation was devastating.

"I'm sorry I didn't think of it sooner, the past few days have been hard on Marissa and me. I know June was having issues with the man." Anton let out a sigh before looking up at Gail. "We will not be able to lay our daughter and her family to rest until the case is closed?" he asked wiping his eyes and sniffling. "We are working as fast as we can to release them to you." Gail nodded before walking out into the hall. "You ok?" Tracie asked, resisting the urge to pull Gail into a hug. "I'll be better once this case is closed." Gail brushed past her towards the locker room.

"Jarrod Tills, is this a record or a phone book!?" Steve sat on the edge of Tracie's desk, flipping the file open to the mug shot and basic information on the first page. "We aren't sure yet, Anton Dragomirov thinks he may be connected to the death of his daughter and the Harris's." Tracie shook her head, trying to stay awake, it was past 10 o'clock at night. They all were working overtime to find anything to place Tills in the scene. "Is Holly still at the lab?" Steve fixed his gaze on Gail, who appeared to be sleeping with her eyes open staring blankly at the ceiling. "No, She left home already at least one of us will be getting some sleep tonight." Gail yawned checking the time before picking up her cold coffee. "I'VE GOT SOMETHING!" Chloe and Dov came running into the parade room holding out a photo. "Tills stopped for gas near Harris Sr's house 15 minutes before McNally and White made it to the scene. That places him in the area during the estimated time of death." Dov blurted out shoving the photo at Tracie.

"I'll get a warrant" Sam quickly picked up his phone and walked out of the room, the picture was better than what they had before. "Thanks guys." Tracie looked over the photo, making sure the plates match and the driver is in fact Tills. "Let's get a team together, we head out to Mr. Till's house once the warrant is issued." Gail stood up and stretched, flinching at the pang of stiffness in her back. Sitting down all day on little sleep started to wear her down. She missed her bed, and she just craved sleep.

"I brought everyone coffee, I figured you were all running on fumes." Andy stated walking into the room with two large take away travelers. "McNally to save the day." Tracie yawned shaking her head fighting off the urge to sit back down and take a power nap while they waited for the warrant. "Just in time I can see." Andy set the coffee down on the table towards the back watching Gail put her vest on over her black fitted T-shirt. "Get some leads?" Andy asked around the room, the crime scene photos, and files were too much to keep in the detective's pit, they had taken over the parade room. "Maybe, we will find out soon." Gail shrugged, walking over to the table with the coffee. "Thanks for this." she pointed before opening the bag that had more than enough cups, creamers, and sugar for the amount of coffee Andy had brought.

"Figured it's the least I could do before heading home." Andy shrugged and pointed to the coffee. "Have at it, I'm off to find Sam, be safe out there." As Andy walked out of the room, everyone made their coffee basking in the smell of fumes of the liquid energy boost. It had been a long day, the case had been picked up by the news and there's a lot of pressure for leads, for anything at this point. Holly had found DNA on Harris Sr. and his wife, all that had been determined was the guy wasn't in the system, it was still the only evidence that was leading them anywhere.

"We breakdown the door on three." Sam pointed to the uniforms in front of him with a ram bar, it was midnight and the house they were in front of was dark. Sam had pounded on the door 3 times with no answer and they had a warrant for a no knock raid. "One!" Sam called out, looking around at the team of officers near him. "Two!" he re adjusted his gun in his hand. "THREE!" The crack of the door splintering cut through the air, everyone stormed into the house in a matter of seconds.

"POLICE! TILLS IF YOU ARE HERE COME OUT NOW!" Sam yelled as he moved from room to room.. "GUYS!" Dov called from the top of the stairs. "You need to come up here!" he called again with more urgency. Gail made it up the stairs first and she quickly holstered her gun. "ALL CLEAR!" a second cop called from the other rooms. "ALL CLEAR!" Chloe called back as Sam and Tracie came up stairs.

Jarrod Tills was found in his bedroom on top of a plastic tarp with a gun at his side, sitting in an armchair. "Mother fucker." Sam holstered his gun, pulling out his phone, presumably to call Holly. "This is still recording." Dov pointed to the camera on one side of the room. "Don't touch anything, it looks like a suicide, We need to be sure before we fuck this up!" Sam called frustrated that there is another body to deal with, another piece to a puzzle that only became more confusing as they went along. "Can you call Holly, I don't want to piss her off." Sam stated moving the phone away from his ear, he gave Gail an apologetic look. "I'll call Oliver." He walked out of the room and back downstairs.

"Why do I have to piss her off?!" Gail called after Sam shaking her head, she pulled her phone out anyway to call Holly. They were in for another long night. Holly answered on the second ring. "Please tell me you are on your way home, I miss the way your cold feet keep me up at night." Holly breathed into the phone, Gail could tell by the rasp in her voice that she had been asleep. "Baby, I'm sorry." Gail muttered wishing she could just call Dr. McAndrew's. "Address?" Holly moved around their room, Gail could hear the distinct sound of socks shuffling on the carpet. "I'll text it to you, I can also send Dov to pick you up if you don't feel like driving." Gail looked at Dov who just nodded his head. "No, ill drive. See you in a few." Holly hung up and Gail quickly sent the address to Holly's phone.

"Techs are on their way too." Tracie shook her head following everyone down stairs, they didn't want to risk contaminating the crime scene. "We need the techs here quickly, to see what's on that camera." Tracie glanced around the yard, she could see the neighbors gathering in their lawns. "News will be here soon, a parameter needs to be set up, keep everyone back." Gail spoke in Chloe and Dov's direction. "Got it." they both nodded and walked towards the street needing no further instructions.

Within 20 minutes they had barricades set up on the street to keep the growing crowd back as crime scene techs scoured every inch of the house. "What do we have?" Holly asked, walking up to the detectives putting a pair of gloves on. "Jarrod Tills, 34 GSW to the head." Tracie greeted, following Holly into the house. "Upstairs to the right." She pointed out watching Holly glance around the main floor. "Can I have the camera or what?!" Gail argued with a scene tech that didn't appear to be old enough to be out of high school. "We still need to take pictures." The guy seemed flustered, most people were afraid of Gail to begin with. When she was tired and had lost her ability to hold back the bite in her voice it was almost amusing. "Well, take the damn pictures already, we need to know what's on the tape." Gail snarled, the ice queen glair could be felt even though she had her back to Holly.

"Can I move the body?" Holly asked, looking at the blood splatter and blood on the floor. "Yes, that part of the room has been processed already." The tech stuttered turning back to focus on the side of the room Gail was standing on. "I'm sorry I woke you." Gail breathed softly, moving to stand next to Holly. "It's ok, I got 4 hours of sleep, that's a small win." Holly moved around the body taking her own pictures. "A miniscule one." Gail breathed scratching her scalp, the lack of rest started to wear her down, and all of the adrenaline from the raid was quickly fading.

Gail watched Holly work, taking pictures and examining the body. She was meticulous with her work, ensuring every detail is committed to memory, and that every fiber stayed with the body. "All done." The tech nodded at Gail as he walked out of the room quickly before Gail could say anything to him. "Thank god." Tracie quickly picked up the cables to plug the camera into the TV. "We need to see what this has on it." She sighed, picking the camera up and flipping through its menu options.

"SAM!" Tracie yelled, turning on the TV on. "Ok, press play." Sam Quickly walked into the room pocketing his phone. "Oliver wants this solved yesterday." He came to a stop near Gail. The screen quickly came to life, showing the outside of Carter Harris Jr.'s house, June Harris on the lawn playing with her son. "He was stalking her?" Tracie shook her head before skipped through various scenes of him hiding and filming June Harris. She quickly stopped when the images were inside the Harris's home. "All I have to do it get rid of him, and it can be you and me. That's what you want right, is for it to be you and me!?" Jarrod Tills spoke to June Harris, she was crouched against the wall crying. "Did you just shake your head at me!?" he yelled, his shadow could be seen, the outline of the camera in one hand and a gun in the other. "I don't love you Jarrod, I love my husband, please, just leave us alone!" she cried looking at her son who looked to be asleep on the floor next to her. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T LOVE ME!?" he screamed waving a gun around.

"Please, please just let us go, I won't tell anyone what happened." June Harris sobbed looking at the camera. "No, I won't let him have you!" he yelled and the gun went off, the bullet hitting June in the stomach. "Please?!" June begged, holding her stomach, her hands quickly turning red from the blood. "NO!" Jarrod yelled, shooting her 4 more times. "Only I can love you!" he yelled again before shooting her twice in the head. "Turn it off." Sam breathed, looking at the floor. "That's everything we need." Sam put the camera in an evidence bag and handed if off to one of the techs to bring back to the station.

"I'll have the autopsy done tonight, I can confidently rule this a suicide, I'll check the DNA against the samples from the other bodies, I'll have a report to you soon." Holly pulled her gloves off looking around the room. "This one should be cut and dry." Tracie looked around the room again before they all shuffled out of the house. "Epstein, Price, I need you guys to stay here while the techs finish up, we're headed back to the station to look through the camera and start the paper work." Tracie stopped in front of the door, noting how tired everyone on site seemed "Ok, we will meet you back at the station." Dov nodded quickly before walking back upstairs.

The blinds in the parade room were closed and the door locked, the uniforms left in the station wondered what needed to be handled so privately. They knew Detective Peck, Nash-Peck, and Swarek were in there with Sargent Shaw.

"I don't want to watch this." Gail muttered, looking at Tracie as she connected the camera to the TV at the front of the room. "None of us  _want_  to watch this, sadly we have to." Tracie looked back at the Tech department guy in the background who would transcribe the information into their files for them. "How bad is this?" Oliver picked up a cup of coffee from the coffee haul he brought to the team of officers and detectives working the case. "From what we played, he may have documented the whole thing." Sam sat behind his laptop quickly pulling up pictures from the first crime scene.

"Let's just get this over with." Tracie quickly pressed play and sat in the seat next to Gail. The screen quickly came to life outside the Harris's house, watching the family get out of their SUV and collect groceries from the back. Gail noted the timestamp when Jarrod Tills rang the doorbell and was let into the house by Carter Harris's Jr.. The timestamp when Cater Harris and His son had been drugged, the timestamp when June Harris was shot. It was hard to watch, knowing that people could be that cruel was impossibly difficult to understand. Jarrod Tills recorded himself smothering Carter Sr. in his sleep and shooting his wife 7 times without hesitation.

"My name is Jarrod Theodore Tills, I am 34 years old, and I killed June Harris and her family as well as Carter Harris Sr. and his wife. I shot June Harris 7 times, drugged and killed her son, and hung her husband. I suffocated Carter Sr. in his sleep while he lay in bed next to his wife, and I shot his wife 7 times because they were the reason June didn't wish to be with me. June said she loved them all and that she would never love me, so I had to get rid of the people keeping her from me. I didn't mean to shoot June, the gun just went off, but it was too late to help her, I was angry, I just needed her to love me the way I loved her. She didn't deserve to live if she didn't love me, so I had to kill her, her family didn't deserve to live either. All of their money and riches, I did the world a favor by removing them from this life." Jarrod tills spoke into the camera, sitting in the chair on the second floor of his home, he was crying, the gun in his hand shaking as he spoke.

"I didn't want you to find me, because I would go to jail, I'm meant to be free, I have done this city a service by removing the filth from its business's. But I won't go to jail, I'm going to join June in the next life, where she will see how much she loves me how much both of us need to be together." Gail flinched watching the screen, knowing what was coming, the gunshot that rang out, the blood, hearing the front door burst open.

"We were an hour late." Sam sighed, looking at the time stamp on the screen. "An hour and no one called the cops, no one heard the gunshot." Tracie stood up and turned the TV off before disconnecting the camera. "Jarrod Tills took the lives of 5 innocent people and his own life, there is no true reasoning behind it, at least I can assure the public that a serial murderer is off the streets, that they don't need to worry about who Jarrod Tills is going to prey on next." Oliver pulled his phone out of his pocket, the footage was 3 hours long, 3 hours of heartbreaking pain and suffering. "I'll call the PR team to set up a press conference, once you have your reports filled out go home, I don't want you in 15 until Tuesday." Oliver walked out of the room leaving the detectives to clean up the mess from the case.

"Is Holly still at the morgue?" Tracie asked, pulling pictures off the wall and putting them into case boxes. "Yeah, she said she needed to finish up her reports before she heads home." Gail nodded closing her files. She had done her paperwork when they got back to the station. The tech team would convert the footage from the camera, they didn't have to transcribe 3 hours of information. "At least we have a few days off." Sam stretched, looking at the time, 5:54 AM. "I'm going to sleep until Tuesday." Tracie yawned taping the first case box closed. "We all are going to sleep until Tuesday, this has been the worst case I have seen in a while." Gail helped Tracie pack all of the pictures and files into their boxes. "It's what we do." Sam breathed piling the boxes on a dolly by the door. "Luckily every case isn't as bad as this one, what came out of this, is knowing that Jarrod Till's won't hurt anyone else." Sam shrugged before wheeling the boxes out of the parade room.

"I made coffee, and I'm making bacon and French toast!" Holly called from the kitchen as Gail walked inside, quickly depositing her jacket and boots by the front door. "You are the best." Gail walked up and wrapped her arms around Holly's waist. "I love you." She kissed the nape of Holly's neck and pulled her back against her happy to feel her warmth. "I love you too" Holly smiled, turning enough to quickly kiss Gail hello. "Why don't you go upstairs and shower, breakfast should be ready when you are done." Holly turned around in Gail's arms. "You ok?" Holly searched Gail's eyes, there was a storm brewing just behind the surface. "This case was just hard, we watched the tape back at the station. The guy filmed everything." Gail sighed wrapping her arms tightly around Holly pressing her face into the junction between Holly's neck and shoulder. "I'm sorry you had to watch that." Holly pulled Gail closer to her trying to comfort her fiancé.

"Go shower, wash the day off and come back here and eat. After that we will sleep for 19 hours, fighting for the covers the entire time." Holly kissed Gail's cheek smiling fondly. "Promise?" Gail leaned in to kiss Holly properly. "I promise." Holly smiled into the kiss, meeting Gail's lips half way. It wasn't a greedy kiss, it was lazy and reassuring, as if their lips could heal the linger emotions of the past few days. Gail's hands loosened their grip on Holly's waist as they stood in the kitchen. "I think the French toast is burning." Gail scrunched up her nose pulling away from Holly, just enough to see the charring edges of the bread on the stove. "Shit." Holly muttered quickly pulling the pan off the burner. "Go shower, stop distracting me with your soft lips and warm hands." Holly set the pan in the sink and checked to make sure the bacon wasn't ruined.

"Yes ma'am." Gail murmured, feeling the weight of her night dissipating. Only Holly could make her feel so light after such a heavy case. She made her way upstairs, stopping just outside of Sophie's room, smiling at the mess of books and drawing that covered the room. Happy that Sophie was with her parents and not bouncing between Andy and her mom while they worked this case, they needed to figure out a babysitting situation. Storing her sidearm in the lockbox in her nightstand, Gail quickly disrobed and stepped into a still warming shower to rinse the remnants of the case down the drain.

Gail stepped out long before the shower ran cold, knowing that staying in too long would drain the already minimal energy she had left. She dressed in baggy sweats and one of Holly's well-worn Henley's. She felt refreshed and relaxed, the lingering tiredness still there, Gail could feel herself slowly sinking into a state of exhaustion once again as she made her way back downstairs to the kitchen.

Holly was humming to herself as she plated their breakfast, a sight Gail knew she would never grow tired of. "How did I get so lucky?" Gail asked, leaning in the doorway to the kitchen, her eyes raked over Holly. The way her flannel pajama pants hung low on her hips, her tank top not quite meeting the waist band leaving an inch of Holly's lower stomach and back exposed. "I ask myself that every day." Holly held a plate out to Gail with a smile. "You're mom called last night, Sophie in her excitement spilled the beans on our pending nuptials." Holly laughed quickly pouring coffee into their mugs.

"I figured it would happen, but we also didn't tell Sophie not to tell them." Gail set her plate down at the breakfast bar. "She is excited that you have come to your senses and proposed, and that she can't wait to have a full on "peck-dynasty" in the force." Holly laughed, trying her best to mimic Elaine Pecks no nonsense authoritative tone. "Lets count" Gail shook her head, pulling a bar stool out for Holly when she rounded the counter. "There is Superintendent Peck, Inspector Peck, there are 2 cousins in the ETF upper rankings, 3 Detective Pecks, and maybe, if you want to take my last name, no pressure though, a Dr. Peck medical examiner." Gail's voice softened to just above a whisper towards the end, her ears turning a light shade of pink.

"That's a lot of pecks." Holly laughed, leaning closer to Gail. "I think being Dr. Holly Peck, sounds amazing Gail, I would be honored to take your last name." Holly kissed Gail quickly before turning back to her breakfast, leaving Gail a bit shocked. "Really, just like that, no questions or argument?" Gail lifted her coffee, putting it to her lips inhaling the strong fumes of the dark roast. "It's easier for me to be a peck, than it would be for you to take my name. I mean there would be the fight with your mother, changing Sophie's name if she wanted to be a Stewart too, your name, the fight with your mother, and the disapproving looks for the rest of our lives from your mother." Holly eyed Gail before she continued.

"I feel like I've been invited to join a secret society that the only way I would be allowed to take the peck last name would be by invitation or application. Your mother seems to approve of us as a couple, as a family, and of me taking her last name." Holly grinned, setting her fork down before turning to face Gail, who was trying to suppress her laughter.

"Babe, if you want me to take your name I will, if you want to take my name we can go into witness protection to hide from your mother, and if you want, we can keep our own last names. As long as I get to marry you, to call you my wife, to love you for the rest of my life I don't care about whom takes whose last name." Holly reached out and gripped Gail's hand. "We can take time to think about this, it doesn't have to be something we decide right now, right here, and after both of us have been working for what seems like 72 hours straight." Holly leaned forward and kissed Gail, her lips lingering for a moment longer than she had intended, Gail tasted of coffee and syrup. "I love you." Gail muttered before pulling Holly out of her chair and into her arms. "I don't deserve you baby." Gail breathed hugging her tight. "Debatable." Holly laughed, relaxing into the embrace, happy to just have Gail close, knowing that they both had a free weekend to catch up on sleep.

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**Review, follow, favorite and I will love you forever.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9 - Rated M**

**AN: so queue the happy times, and by happy times, I mean the sexy times…the first couple thousand words or so of this chapter are pretty smutty, read on if you feel like it, or skip over it to the first page break line.**

**If there are errors in here I'm sorry I've been editing this for a few hours.**

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Gail's eyes forced themselves open at 11:22 AM; she had fallen asleep on the couch nearly 4 hours ago after breakfast. In mutual laziness, Gail and Holly decided that the couch would be comfortable enough to catch up on sleep because they did not have the energy to climb the stairs. Sadly, Gail knew that she should wake Holly; they were not going to sleep tonight if they slept the entire day. That would cause more damage when it came to regulating their sleeping pattern. It has seemed unfair, they had both been awake all night working, and neither of them had gotten much sleep in the last few nights.

Gail loved how Holly had curled around her in her sleep their arms and legs tangled holding each other tight to make sure neither one fell off the couch. Holly had shifted from sleeping next to Gail, to sleeping on top of her. Holly looked peaceful her hair messily captured into a knot at the top of her head, her lips quirked into a semi smile. Gail reached up and brushed a few stray hands away from Holly's face, the ones that were tickling Gail's nose, she ran her fingers along holly's cheek, causing Holly's nose to scrunch up and her lips to pout. Gail could not hide the smile the appeared on her face; she was absolutely enamored with the women.

The curtains leading to the backyard dulled the early afternoon sun; it lit up the room just enough to allow Gail to unabashedly observe holly. The way her glowed a warm golden tone, how her fingers curled possessively into Gail's shirt. By 11: 45, Gail had talked herself into waking holly; she had spent her time admiring the women asleep blanketed over her, taking her time to etch this version of holly into her memory. "Hols." Gail kissed holly's forehead softly, letting her lips rest against her hair line anticipating the grumpy response. "We agreed on 19 hours!" holly whined tightening her grip around Gail. "I know, we won't sleep tonight if we sleep the whole day, though." Gail brushed along her forehead as she ran her hands up the back of holly's tank top savoring the smoothness of her skin.

"When did you turn into the adult?" holly complained, her lips ghosting along Gail's neck as she tried to bury her face in the space between Gail's neck and the couch. "Mmhhm, I'm not sure." Gail tried to suppress the moan building in her throat; Holly knew any attention to Gail's neck turned her on. "Can I please sleep for 9 more hours?" holly tucked her head against Gail's neck. "If you sleep for 9 hours, you'll be awake all night alone, and tomorrow you'll be asleep while I'm awake, and the cycle just continues until we turn 90 and gray and never see each other, since you slept through every day we were together." Gail pressed her fingers into holly's back feeling holly laugh. "So much for being an adult, you are dramatic." Holly slowly pushed herself up off the couch, pressing her hands on either side of Gail's ribs.

"For the record, you're much more comfortable to sleep on than I previously assumed." Holly leaned down to kiss Gail's chin, a smile slowly appearing on her lips. "What's that supposed to imply?" Gail stretched pressing her body up into holly hoping to get a rise out of the woman above her. A sort of payback for knowingly kissing her neck. "Mmhhm, it means that I enjoy sleeping on you." Holly watched Gail's lips twitch into a smirk she knew all too well, Gail's hips arching to apply more pressure to holly's core.

"Is this why you woke me up?" holly asked, pressing her weight down and trapping Gail beneath her, feigning annoyance as she got comfortable. "No, I woke you up so we wouldn't sleep all day; this is just a happy coincidence." Gail leaned up to kiss holly, simply pressing their lips together not letting it go farther. "We can stop if that's a complaint." Gail pulled away and holly shook her head, her signature lopsided grin appearing for a moment. "Just because we should wake up doesn't mean we have to move off the couch." Holly breathed running her nose along Gail's check, her warm breath on Gail's lips. She waited a moment before pressing her lips against Gail's, gently taking tracing tongue along their seem, not begging or demanding entrance, just soft strokes against the soft skin. "We need to call your parents today." Gail breathed, running her fingers inside the waistband of holly's pajama bottoms pressing into the small of holly's back as holly kissed her way along Gail's jaw.

"Can you do me a favor?" holly attached her lips to Gail's neck running her tongue along the pulse point. "Hmm?" Gail moaned, trying to keep holly's lips doing what they were doing. "Don't mention my parents, not when this is happening." Holly ran her teeth along Gail's pulse point, pleased when she felt the thumping against her lips quicken. "Yeah, no talking." Gail grabbed holly's face and pulled her into another kiss, arching off the couch and moving enough to let holly fall between her legs. "Bed." Holly murmured pressing herself up into Gail's center. "Mmhhm, here." Gail moaned, arching into holly wrapping her leg around holly's thigh, pulling her impossibly closer. "Oh god." Holly moaned as Gail's hands snuck inside her pants and pulled holly forward needing the toned flesh of holly's ass.

"Just me." Gail smirked creating a push and pull rocking motion as her lips battled for dominance against Holly. "Bed." Holly roughly stood up, pulling Gail off the couch and into her arms easily supporting the new weight. "Fuck." Gail shuddered at the sudden contact against Holly's abdomen. Holly took a few quick strides and pressed Gail's back against the wall, pressing her body into Gail. She used the position to let her fingers grip Gail's hips as she roughly rocked into Gail's core. "God you're hot." Holly moaned, feeling the heat from Gail's center against her stomach. "It's hard not to be when you slept on top of me all morning." Gail sighed arching her back off the wall seeking friction her arousal grew. "You and morning sex." Holly rolled her eyes before pulling Gail's shirt up enough to run her hands along Gail's flat stomach gently scraping her nails along the skin.

"Are you complaining nerd?" Gail leaned forward and nipped holly's throat feeling the moan before it tumbled off her lips. "God no." Holly pulled away from the wall and quickly ascended the stairs towards their bedroom, making Gail moan her name now being her mission. "Fuck, how are you this sexy every morning?" Gail kissed along holly's shoulder, letting her tongue run over the tendons that Gail wouldn't admit she knew all the names too. "Have you glanced in a mirror?" Holly leaned forward to lay Gail on their bed before quickly ridding herself of her Tank top and sports bra. "Fuck." Gail grinned, sitting up to quickly remove her own shirt pleased that she neglected to wear a bra after showering. "Agreed." Holly muttered crawling up the bed towards Gail pushing her back towards the headboard.

"It's not fair that you always look this good." Gail ran her hands up the smooth expanse of Holly's back, smiling at her fiancé. "You're sexy in the mornings." Holly smiled, when she leaned down to kiss, her she was surprised when Gail quickly switched their positions pinning Holly against the matters. "I love you." Gail husked out before leaning down to pepper holly's chest with kisses following a path of small freckles as she went.

"Gail!" holly hissed as Gail's lips wrapped around her already hard nipple, her teeth gently scraping along her flesh causing a wave of chills to roll through her body. "Hmm so responsive." Gail smirked teasing the tip with her tongue, working lazy 8's around the stiff peak. Gail loved the sheer taste that was purely holly, something primal, as if her soul had been searching for this flavor her entire life. Holly's skin, her essence, the taste of her lips, Gail craved it, resembling a junkie after only a few days without it. Holly whimpered as Gail's attention started towards her other breast, she ached for more, for Gail to finally push her over the edge.

What had started as holly's intention to take Gail on the couch quickly escalated towards holly losing all motor skills, her body giving into the attention of Gail's lips. Holly's fingers laced into Gail's hair when she reached her other nipple, trying to both keep her in place and force her attention lower, where the inferno raged between her legs. Gail moaned as holly's nails scraped along her scalp at the base of her skull. "Oh." Holly gasped as Gail's lips trailed lower, leaving open mouth kisses down her stomach, gently nipping as she went. "Too many clothes." Gail muttered, sitting up enough to pull holly's pajama bottoms off letting them fall to the side of their bed. "Cute" Gail looked at the Gameboy themed boy shorts holly wore. "Shut it." Holly reached down and pushing her underwear down her thighs, quickly kicking them in the direction that her pants had gone. "Nerd." Gail slurred as she settled herself on top of holly's naked body. "Nintendo is a classic." Holly argued reaching down to pull Gail's sweats and underwear down her thighs; she needed to feel all of Gail. "Surely." Gail kicked her sweats off the side of the bed.

Gail settled back over holly moaning at the feel of skin on skin, holly's stiff nipples pushing against Gail's. Gail has kissed her way to holly's lips, settling into a lazy kiss, her tongue gently stroking holly's, exploring her mouth and mapping out her lips. Gail brushed her nose along cheeks when they pulled back looking up to appreciate the need in Holly's eyes, darkening from chocolate brown to nearly onyx. Gail could feel holly growing impatient by the way she squirmed under her, the way her hands went from gently caressing her back and sides to creating pressure as her fingers pressed into Gail's skin. Gail gently kissed holly's lips again before retracing her path towards holly's center, taking less time savoring the taste of holly's skin before settling between holly's thighs.

"God your wet." Gail breathed nipping at the adductor tendon on holly's thigh, running her tongue along the protruding ridge. "Mmhhm!" holly whimpered, her hips rising off the bed trying to force Gail's attention to where she needed it the most. "Steady." Gail breathed wrapping her arms around holly's hips, preventing her from moving around the bed. "Stop teasing me Gail!" holly yelped as Gail nipped at the tendon on the other side. Gail smiled, running her tongue along a mole at the junction of holly's thighs. "So impatient." Gail slipped her tongue into holly's Slit, licking from top to bottom, neglecting to apply pressure to holly's clit. "God yes." Holly breathed as Gail's tongue slowly dipped into her folds exploring her most intimate area.

Gail kissed holly's outer lips gently before releasing her hold on holly with one hand, gently sliding a finger against the slick heat. "Please?!" Holly begged, her hips moving towards Gail's hand. Gail adjusted her position as holly placed her thigh over Gail's shoulder granting her better access. "Perfect." Gail muttered to herself softly kissing the inside of holly's thigh while teasing holly's entrance, dipping into her to just her first knuckle, pulling back to push the pooling wetness towards holly's clit, never touching it. "Fuck Gail, please?!" Holly begged, her back arching off the mattress in frustration needing the pending release. Gail realized she had pushed holly past the point of playful teasing and onto the point of near torture.

Gail slowly slid one finger into holly's center feeling holly instantly tighten around it seeking release, Gail slowly pulled out as holly's hips began to move, trying to set a rhythm. "More?!" holly whined scraping her nails along Gail's shoulders. "Fuck you taste good." Gail leaned in to kiss the top of Holly's slit, before sliding a second finger into her, setting a slow and firm pace, pushing into Holly's hot center. "Yes." Holly groaned, Gail's equated Holly's sex sounds to her favorite music, she loved to hear holly on the brink of ecstasy, knowing she enticed those sounds turned Gail on more than she thought possible.

"Fuck!" holly cried out, gripping Gail's shoulder harder, her eyes slamming shut as Gail picked up the pace. "Mmhhm." Gail moaned, running her tongue along holly's clit. She knew there would be angry scarps along her back later, but she didn't care. "I'm close!" holly cried out rocking towards Gail's lips and fingers. "Harder please?!" holly begged her head thrashing on the pillow, she could feel the euphoric tingle in her lower abdomen as she teetered on the edge of her orgasm. Gail set dizzying place along holly's clit with her tongue while she pumped her fingers into holly fighting to keep her lips attached to holly's clit as they moved on their own accord.

"YES!" holly shrieked as her orgasm ripped through her, her hips arching off the matters, her walls clamping down on Gail's fingers. Gail continued her pace curling her fingers to quickly bring holly back to the edge before sucking forcefully on her clit and sending her back into a fit of moans and curses withering on the bed gripping fistfuls of the duvet. "Oh fuck." holly tried to escape the assault of Gail's tongue on her clit. "Oh god, don't stop!." She cried as Gail slowed down, holly's fingers quickly moving to lace into Gail's hair, the third orgasm had started to build. Gail slowly pulled out of Holly continuing to slowly work her tongue over holly's overly sensitive clit letting her free fall. Gail watched in awe as holly road out her orgasm, her muscles contracting and her breathing becoming erratic. "Fuck Gail." Holly sighed, falling limp onto the mattress, completely spent.

Gail rested her chin on holly's hip, smiling at the woman who held her heart, also proud that she had made holly beg. "Stop looking at me like that." holly murmured covering her face trying to control her breathing that came in ragged puffs. "My how the tables have turned." Gail grinned, kissing along holly's hip bone that excited a little yelp from holly as all of her nerve ending fired at once, her entire body was overly sensitive.  
"When I can move again, which may not be for a while, you will pay for that." Holly sighed when her breathing slowed, she could feel her heart rate calming. Gail slowly moved back up the bed to lie next to holly who was taking slow deep breaths. "I love you so much hol." Gail studied the woman in front of her, the way her chest rose in a standard pattern, and how the beads of sweat had started to leave trails down her skin. "Mmhhm, I love you too." Holly breathed letting her eyes close as she fell asleep. "I really want to make you feel this good, but I can't move." Holly murmured turned to wrap her arms around Gail's waist.

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"You let me sleep?" holly rubbed her eyes coming downstairs in a black silk robe, Gail could tell easily that holly only had her sports bra and boy shorts on underneath it. "I didn't let you. You made threats when I tried to keep you awake. You told me if I didn't let you sleep that I wouldn't have another orgasm until the wedding, and considering my mother won't let us rush the wedding I didn't want to risk it." Gail glanced over the top of her iPad at Holly. "I don't remember saying that." Holly sat on the couch molding herself to Gail's side. "I would not make jokes about this." Gail peered down at holly as she settled onto the couch. "I would never follow through with that." Holly wrapped her arms around Gail's waist. "I wasn't so sure, so I let you sleep." Gail smoothed the hair from holly's face, they hadn't lazed around together in a while. Gail had missed these moments, the lazy content happiness that seeped into her soul.

"For your knowledge, I certainly approve of whatever took over this morning, I'm all for you taking control, what happened though, that's a gear over normal, I'm sorry I couldn't stay awake to return the favor, but I promise I will late." Holly nuzzled Gail's rib cage feeling rested and at ease. "You took over baby, god you wake up and you're perfect, I just can't help it." Gail set her iPad down letting her arm drape around holly's shoulder. Morning sex was Gail's weak point, it was the reason they were often rushing out of the house and nearly late to work most mornings. Their good morning kisses often were carried away, and is the reason behind the no showering together before work rule too.

"We should call my parents, tell them we are engaged, and we need to tell our friends." Holly rolled onto her back looking at the ring that still surprised her when she saw it. "They are coming over for wine and dessert tonight at 8." Gail checked the time, she was waiting for their dinner to arrive. "Did you sleep?" Holly asked, grabbing her glasses from the coffee table where they had been discarded early this morning. "No, I knew I wouldn't want to wake up if I tried to nap. I cleaned, did the laundry, and ordered dinner to keep busy." Gail yawned hoping that they would be heading to bed early tonight.

"I also sent out an invitation to everyone, they will be meeting us at the penny tomorrow for drinks, we haven't been out in a while, I figured it wouldn't seem weird, or that they would suspect anything." Gail reached out for holly's hand. "My parents will be surprised." Holly threads her fingers with Gail's, loving the way Gail's hand fit perfectly in her. "Everyone will be surprised." Gail ran her thumb along the side of holly's hand, groaning when the doorbell rang. "Dinners here, you should dress before your parents arrive, as much as I appreciate the Nintendo throwback boy shorts, I'm not sure your parents will be as thrilled as I am with the visual." Gail helped push holly into a sitting position so she could get up to answer the door.

* * *

 

Gene and Ivan Stewart terrified Gail, they were both headed departments at McMaster University in different medical fields, they had 4 amazing kids, and they loved each other. Gail wondered what it would have been like to grow up with parents who were as loving as they were successful, she tried not to dwell on the thought because it often made her uneasy. Since adopting Sophie and moving in with Holly and promotions at Work, Elaine Peck had turned over a new leaf, she was no longer the overly judgmental woman who had given birth to Gail and Steven Peck. Elaine peck had taken the role of Grandma Elaine with gusto surprising everyone including Bill Peck. Gail's Family continued to grow closer, they were getting along now that the peck children had settled down, and so Gail tried not to let thoughts of how her childhood could have been different linger for too long.

"My parents are here!" Holly called from the kitchen seeing the headlights flood the house, she was preparing their dessert in the kitchen. "Can you grab glasses out of the cupboard, I'll answer the door." Gail's head popped into the doorway quickly before she headed to the front of their house. "Stop grinning they will know something's up." Holly called back at Gail before she pulled four glasses down from the cupboard. "Hello Gail." Holly heard her father's booming voice coming from the front room. Holly looked out the doorway smiling as Gail greeted her parents hugging them both.

The first time it had happened holly feared that Gail would default into self-defense mode and push her mom away but Gail had returned the hug as awkwardly as you would expect her to. Now its common practice, Gail no longer went ridged or made faces when she was hugged by Holly's family. Holly smiled leaning against the door jamb amazed at how open Gail was with her parents. "Holly" Ivan beamed pulling Holly in to a tight embrace. "Dad." Holly returned his smiled pulling him into the kitchen so she could finish preparing their dessert.

Gail followed Gene to the kitchen counter and observed the Stewart's in their natural easiness. The Stewart Children got their height and skin tone from Ivan who stood at least 193 CM, his skin a little darker than his kids. Gene had fair skin was by no means short but closer to Gail's height. Holly's lopsided smile came from her mothers, Gail had never seen such an instant recognition between parents and their children. There are only two attributes Gail could connect with her parents, her Snarky attitude and pail skin. "Red or white?" holly asked, raising an eyebrow at Gail, she had missed a fair portion of their conversation staring off into space. "Um, red." Gail quickly refocused on the conversation around them.

"We saw your case on the news." Got Gail's attention moving towards their kitchen table. "We just closed it last night." Gail turned quickly to comment before looking back at holly that had her back to her. "72 hours of nearly nonstop work though." Gail moved to sit across from Gene trying to stop her from staring at holly, since this morning she couldn't seem to take her eyes off her. "At least it is closed now." Gene added accepting the wine glass from Ivan once he sat next to her. "Where is Sophie?" Ivan sipped from his glass, looking around the room. "Sophie's with my parents at our family cabin, we weren't sure if the case would be prolonged, they took Sophie and my Sister-In-Laws son up with them." Gail looked between them all of a sudden nervous to let anyone in on their engagement.  
When she had purchased the ring a few months back, Gail had asked for Alexis's help, as much as holly claimed that Lisa and Rachel were her best friends, Alexis knew holly better than either of them and wouldn't insist that she buy a two hundred thousand dollar ring just to show off. Once the right ring had been picked out, Gail took the hour drive the Hamilton to meet Ivan and Gene for lunch, subseqentialy asking for their permission to propose to their daughter. They had both quickly given Gail their approval stating they couldn't be happier for them. Gail knew she had her hang ups when it came to meeting new people and letting them in, she had still somehow managed to win over the Stewart family, she attributed it to Sophie's ability to make people love her.

"We need to look into getting a sitter." Holly set their dessert on the table before gently squeezing Gail's shoulder. "I realized that when I got home this morning." Gail watched as holly retreated back to the kitchen to grab their wine. "You still don't have a full time sitter?" Gene shook her head at Gail, it had been a common topic. Andy and Elaine knew Gail would put it off as much as possible so they had both stepped in to fill the role, and everyone knew it. "I will have one by the end of the week." Gail turned back to holly's parents and pulled out holly's chair so she could join them . "You seem to say that every time we visit." Ivan laughed sipping his drink, Gail knew Ivan disliked the taste of wine and preferred whiskey to all other beverages, they had started keeping his favorite bottle in their liquor cabinet.

The four of them fell into easy conversation, talking about work, life, the news, and family. Gail loved how at ease she felt around the Stewarts, she hoped Sophie would feel the same way when she came back home or brought friends over. "We have an announcement." Holly gripped Gail's knee under the table, trying to settle her nerves, she had just pulled the ring out of her pocket and put it back on her finger. "You're pregnant?!" Gene gasped, looking between the pair all too amused with her joke. "Mother." Holly rolled her eyes and took a deep breath. " Gail proposed, and I said yes." Holly smiled affectionately at Gail, who couldn't contain the shit eating grin plastered on her face. One holly had become accosted to seeing when they were at home the last few days. "Bout time kiddo." Ivan quickly made his way around the table to hug Holly.

"I'm happy for you both." Gene joined Ivan sandwiching holly into a drawn out hug. "How did Sophie take the news?" Ivan asked before pulling Gail into his arm. "She is excited." Gail chocked out, trying to hold back, the grimace as gene joined the hug but squeezed a little too tight. "So your family is almost official." Gene sat back down in front of her glass. Ivan's gaze shifted between Gail and holly who were sitting shoulder to shoulder. "It will be very soon." Gail draped her arm over the back of holly's seat trying to get closer. "Have you told your parents?" Gene asked smiling at future daughter-in-law. "Sophie told them for us, we will have a more official announcement tomorrow night when they get back in town." Holly laughed leaning into Gail's side, happy to have her parent's approval.

"I thought you would be surprised." Holly sipped her wine eyeing her parents over the rim. "We knew it was going to happen, Gail showed us the ring and asked for our approval." Ivan smiled causing Gail to blush a deep crimson color under his gaze. She let holly in on that secret. "You asked for my hand?" holly asked moving away from Gail's side to watch her. "Your dad is like the hulk holly, I wasn't going to propose and not have his approval first." Gail muttered under her breathe. "I told you, I wanted to do this right, it's why it took me so long after Sophie gave you the locket." Gail looked down plucking at the seam of her jeans trying to force her blush to not creep down her neck and chest. Holly smiled before leaning forward to kiss Gail's cheek. "I love you." she breathed in Gail's ear leaning back into her side.

**AN: So yes… I wrote smut... did I do it well, I'm pretty sure it sucks but I'll let you be the judge of that. We got to meet two more of the Stewart household I have created in my head, and you might meet her brothers down the road. The next chapter has some Peck Family time, Bill, Elaine, Steve, and Tracie.**

**I hope that this was to your liking, thank you all for reading this far, hopefully the story isn't too bad if you have read this far.**

**Your reviews, Follows, and Favorites warm my heart, they are each like a tiny present under the tree, and when I see them, it is like Christmas morning.**

 


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

**AN: SORRY FOR THE DELAY ON THIS CHAPTER, I've had major writers block/ story mash up going on for a few weeks as I've been editing awake but dreaming and trying to write this chapter.**

* * *

 

"Surprise!" came a chorus of shouts as Gail and Holly entered the Penny 10 minutes before they were scheduled to meet their friends. "Dammit McNally!" Gail reached over and slapped her arm glaring at Andy; their announcement had been stolen from them. "I'm sorry; it just slipped out in the locker room." Andy grinned, pulling Holly into a hug while Oliver quickly pulled Gail towards the center of their group to be congratulated. "Congratulations, officially." Andy turned towards Holly, who watched with an amused smile as Gail became bombarded with hugs, and adorable glare plastered on her face. "I'm disappointed that we found out through McNally." Tracie gave Holly a disappointed stare before smiling and hugging her. "I'm sure you will find a way to make up for it."

"I'm sure we will." Holly watched as Andy and Tracie studied the platinum band sitting on her finger. "This is beautiful." Tracie smiled before looking towards Gail, as she was ushered back to Holly by Steve. "Did you pick this out yourself?" Tracie asked once Gail stood in earshot, Gail's eyes never left holly's face. "Alexis helped me, I had final say." Gail nodded proudly that Tracie approved her choice. "Rachel and Lisa just came in." Holly nodded towards the front door before leaving the main celebration. "I'll catch you in a bit; I'm going to go greet the angry mob." Gail followed Holly noticing a few of the Lab techs and old co-workers migrating towards Holly.

"What exactly are we celebrating?!" Lisa eyed the cops that filled the bar before pointing to the large banner hung along the back wall. Congratulations peck and Stewart! Took up a majority of the wall both of their facebook profile pictures had been printed out as Wanted signs. "Detective." Lisa groaned and flinched as Rachel punched her in the arm. "Boob job." Gail rolled her eyes as she pull holly protectivly into her side, her hand gripping her hip firmly. "Our engagement." Holly beamed leaning into Gail, knowing that Gail would not let her move while her friends were in arms reach, a precaution that prevented Gail from reaching out and smacking one of them. "You're what?!" Lisa asked wide-eyed.

"We are celebrating the fact that Holly agreed to marry me. As in we will be having a wedding, your invitations are pending approval though." Gail grinned, overjoyed that she had managed to leave the brunette speechless. "She has a kid!" Lisa retorted, gaping at Holly, who now physically restrained Gail. "We have a family, keen observation Lisa. Our marriage will only solidify the foundation we have spent nearly 3 years building together." Holly shook her head at her friends stepping behind Gail to pull her back against her. "If you don't support us, please leave." Holly sounded defeated, a tone that caused gails stomach to tighten, she hated it when holly's voice lost its joyous the time that holly had been back from San Francisco their friendship grew stronger, Lisa and Rachel had made and effort to befriend Gail and their dinners and outings were substantially less tense in return.

"Babe, I'm going to walk away before I'm arrested." Gail kissed holly's cheek and tried to walk back towards their group, only to be stopped by a pair of arms wrapping around her shoulders. "She is Happy with you Gail; I'm ecstatic that you finally worked up the courage to make her an honest woman." Lisa ruffled Gail's hair with a wicked grin quickly backing away as Gail's expression turned icy. "Lisa, you may find that funny, however that speech does not fall on the list of amusing Lisa stories, and messing with Gail's hair is a surefire way to sign your death certificate." Holly muttered noticing Gail's ridged posture. "I need a drink." Gail huffed before stalking towards the bar, unable to trust her ability to say socially acceptable things to Holly's friends.

"You know that I support you and Holly 100% right?" Lisa caught Gail alone at a table a while later, the blonde appeared to be completely over the entire social gathering. "I don't know what you support Lisa." Gail muttered into her glass, she was over the moon about her engagement to Holly but the amount of hugs and physical contact from people that weren't holly had quickly became to wear on her. Gail desperately needed a quiet moment to herself away from the hoard of people all too eager to touch her. "I'm sorry, my attempt to be funny earlier, I realize that it came out completely wrong, Rachel made that abundantly clear. I love Sophie and you and Holly have always been end game." Lisa sat next to Gail and glanced around the bar, at their collective groups of friends milling around and socializing.

"When Holly moved to San Francisco and you both decided to be friends, because 2 years is a long time to wait. I understood why you came to that conclusion, 2 years can change everything." Lisa finished her beer trying to find the right words to express herself. "Holly called me that first night in her apartment, on day three of her two year adventure. Also day three of your suggested two weeks apart, two weeks to cope with the new situation." Lisa played with the bottle in front of her for a moment before glancing up at Gail. "I believed I had seen holly in love before, I had seen her in relationships that had the potential to lead to marriage and living happily ever after. Suddenly this cop came into the picture; 4 months out of a 5 year relationship Holly all of a sudden started telling us of this striking blonde whose whit could give you whiplash and eyes that told her secrets." Rachel joined them at the table before noticing Holly's concerned gaze from across the bar.

Gail noticed holly's worry, but she smiled and just nodded, letting Holly know that she didn't need to be rescued. "Gail this and Peck that, you were the only topic worth her time." Rachel laughed to herself before placing a beer in front of Lisa. "Holly had the worst school girl straight girl crush I had ever seen, you came up in every conversation and we didn't know how to protect her heart. We don't hear many success stories from that scenario." Rachel watched Gail making sure she had the blonde's full attention, Gail just nodded at her in return.

"That first night in her apartment, I had never seen holly ever completely give up on anything. She hated that she had screwed up her chances with you by moving across the continent and to another country. She hated that you had found this amazing little girl, and that Sophie had captured your heart, she couldn't come to terms with the fact that she completely understood why you needed to stay in Toronto." Lisa took a generous pull from her beer and finally met Gail's gaze. Gail felt the pang of guilt; letting holly leave for San Francisco on presumably, an amicable break up had been the hardest thing either of them had done.

"She cried for 3 hours on the phone that night telling us that she had ruined the best relationship in her life for a job. She had turned into her own worst nightmare; work became more important than her own heart. Rachel and I started searching for flights to San Francisco to at least be there in person to help her; it was difficult to be far away from her knowing how much she hurt. When we video called her to pick the best time to fly out to see her, you were there and Holly's smile couldn't have been bigger. In a matter of hours she had gone from a crying mess to the happiest version of Holly anyone has ever been privileged enough to see." Lisa laughed causing Gail to smile as she remembered her impromptu trip to San Francisco less than a week after holly had left.

"I knew in that first second of seeing her smile that way that you were the end of Holly Stewart as we knew her. There would be no other fish in the sea or you will find someone new, Holly had found Gail Peck, her Soulmate, the one. I remember Holly telling us how you showed up at her door at 2 o'clock in the morning with a backpack, and a police cat stuffed toy, that story is only comparable to witnessing Shakespeare write one of his sonnets. Gail believe me when I say this, I support you and Holly with every fiber of my being, I know that you would do anything for her and she would do anything for you and your daughter. I am elated to welcome you to our dysfunctional family." Lisa reached out and squeezed Gail's shoulder, nodding towards Rachel as they both stood and left Gail alone with her memory.

* * *

 

 _Gail had never felt this nervous in her entire life nor had she done anything as spontaneous as booking a red eye across the country to show up unannounced at someone's door. She knew that she should wait until the sun had at least risen, that she should reserve a hotel room and not just bang on the door, that she should not have used her badge to gain access to holly's floor._ In good moral conscience _, she knew that she had broken nearly every rule they had come up with together, 2 weeks to adjust, no talking, no texting, they would see each other again when holly came back to Toronto for her mother's birthday in 5 months. Armed with nothing more than a backpack full of clothes that Dov had packed and the teddy bear she had found at the airport Gail prepared herself for the possible rejection. She knew she needed to at least try because in only 5 days Gail's entire world had fallen apart and she needed to fix it._

 _Come on peck, Gail muttered to herself before ringing the doorbell hearing it sound rather loudly in the hallway. She watched as light seeped into the hall from under holly's door, the shadow of feet, stopping just to the side. "Yeah?" Holly muttered through the door, Gail could hear the sleep in her voice and it almost made her break down in tears, only 3 inches of steel separated them now. "Can I come in?" Gail answered barley able to complete her question before the door had been ripped open. "Gail!?" Holly_   _asked wide-eyed and suddenly alert, her eyes searched every part of Gail._

_"I'm stupid; I'm the dumbest person on the planet for thinking that two years is too long, I would wait a lifetime for you holly." Gail unsuccessfully tried to stop the tears from building in her eyes. "I want a chance to prove to you that this can work, I need you in my life and I will do whatever it takes to have you forever." Gail watched the shocked expression on holly's face, feeling the knot in her stomach tighten. It had all been a mistake, holly did not feel the same, she should have just stayed in Toronto, every negative thought flooded Gail's mind watching holly just stare back at her. "I should have called, I shouldn't have just shown up and expected this to be oomph." Gail had been cut off by the sudden pressure of holly's lips on hers, her arms wrapping impossibly tight around her waist. The kiss lasted only moments before holly pulled away and watched Gail's lips._

_"You're here, this isn't a dream?" Holly muttered, reaching up to touch Gail's face, gently tracing her fingers along her cheek, her eyes trained on the swollen red lips of the woman in her arms. "It's the best dream I've had if it is one." Gail muttered, leaning forward to kiss holly again, needing the contact to anchor her, to reassure her that she had not completely lost her mind, or that this had not been the worst Idea Gail had ever conceived._

_"You can't leave every time this gets hard." Holly breathed once they finally broke apart, the pair now situated against the counter in holly's kitchen, their hallway make-out session had been interrupted by an angry neighbor causing them both to venture into Holly's apartment. Her arms still firmly wrapped around Gail's shoulders, afraid to let go. "You can't run again Gail, my heart won't survive that." Holly sighed, running her finger along the collar of Gail's shirt, still trying to grasp the fact that Gail stood in her apartment, that her mind had not created an elaborate dream to cope with her heartache. "I'm never running again, I…" Gail trailed off and took a deep breath meeting holly's stare, the warm brown eyes looking back at her seemed to search her soul. "I love you holly." Gail rasped out before staring at the floor, afraid of her own emotions, she had never verbalized those words to anyone. "I never want to feel the way I've felt the last 5 days, you took my heart on that plane with you." Gail sighed, doing her best to hold back the tears; she had spent too much time crying already._

_Holly had the ability to turn Gail into a babbling puddle of emotions just by looking at her, an aspect that had been missing in all of her relationships before holly. "I love you too Gail." Holly mumbled against Gail's lips, slowly pulling her forward until their lips met in a slow and familiar dance, one that had been perfected, there was no battle for control they both knew what the other needed. "Come to bed?" Holly muttered once they pulled apart, both breathless and completely at ease. "Always." Gail kicked out of her boots and left her backpack on the kitchen counter, overjoyed that Holly had asked her to stay._

_"How long are you here for?" Holly inquired once they had navigated the maze of boxes towards her bedroom. "Oliver gave me 9 days off to be here, if you will have me." Gail watched holly, expecting her to tell her 9 days overstepped some boundary and that she should head home sooner. "What about Sophie?" Holly suddenly felt nervous; almost 2 weeks without visiting Sophie could hurt the adoption process. Holly refused to be the reason that Gail backed out of the adoption, she had spent time with Sophie, and she had seen the light in the little girl's eyes. "They told me to take a 2 week cooling off period yesterday, that the board needed to review my application and contact my references before I could see Sophie again. I will still have Nightly calls to her; I just can't visit until I'm back in Toronto." Gail chewed nervously on her lip, unsure of how to act in holly's home. Everything felt different now; the room lacked the warmth of holly's old house, the only familiarity stood holly's king sized platform bed._

_"Pick a side." Holly watched Gail's gaze shift over the unmade bed, knowing that while their passion had only intensified in the kitchen that they would not be consummating this step in their relationship tonight. Holly watched as Gail stripped out of her jeans and folded them neatly before setting them on a nearby box. Gail's pale legs seemed to glow in the dim light of her bedroom, god she had missed those legs. "I can unpack while you're at work." Gail noted before slipping under the covers, her eyes traveling over the piles of boxes lining the room. "I don't start work for another week; my paperwork got mixed up when I landed, my clearance won't be approved until next Monday." Holly dug through a box labeled Misc., finally producing a night lamp with a victorious smile. Gail watched as holly found an outlet and set the lamp on her dresser before turning out the lights. "Unpacking made me feel guilty, that removing the boxes would somehow cement the fact that we were over." Holly breathed before turning to meet Gail's stare, both of them shared the same guilty expression._

_"I bought this right before I left." Holly watched as the lamp slowly started to warm up, casting the constellations around the room, she knew that Gail hated being in the dark especially in placed she did not know. "Wow." Gail watched the stars dance along the walls, waiting for Holly to join her in bed. "I love you holly." Gail breathed once holly had settled next to her, rolling over and resting her head on holly's shoulder. "I love you too Gail." Holly pulled Gail closer to her, feeling ok for the first time since stepping off the plane at SFO. Holly's world felt bright again, as if Gail's appearance had brought back the sun._

* * *

 

"How exactly did McNally find out before me!?" Tracie asked while helping Gail set the table, The Sr. Pecks and Peck grandchildren would be back from their trip to the cabin soon. "Andy was babysitting Sophie, and when we went to pick her up planning on telling her over ice cream Sophie saw the ring and started asking questions. It's not like I told Andy first Tracie." Gail glanced up at Steve and Holly in the kitchen making dinner, glad that her soon to be wife had found such an easy rhythm not only with Sophie and herself, but with her family as well. "How did Sophie react to the news?" Tracie walked over to the counter and picked up her wine glass knowing that Gail's concentration fixated on holly. "She's excited." Gail smiled when she saw the ring on Holly's finger, delighted that she no longer felt inclined to take it off while in mixed company.

"I'm sure mom is planning her Toronto take over, now that her family reaches past the policing side and into the ME's office." Steve laughed, pulling a tray out of the oven; the aroma quickly filled the house causing Gail's stomach to rumble. "Dynasty Steve, mother is building a dynasty." Gail laughed when she saw the headlight shine through the front window signaling the arrival of the Sr. Pecks. "Speaking of which, here they come." Gail walked to the door, watching her dad and mom get out of their car, both smiling at each other. "Can you ask Steve to come help; they passed out in the back seat." Bill called when he noticed Gail standing in the doorway. "Dad needs help bringing them inside, the kids are asleep." Gail called back into the house watching as her dad pulled Sophie into his arms.

"What will we do when they're too big to pick up?" Tracie watched as Steve pulled Leo out of the back seat. "Cry like babies." Gail pouted thinking about their kids growing up, how Sophie had been in her life for almost 3 years, she had officially been her mother for 2 years now, time certainly did fly by. "This is for you and Hol." Sophie muttered, holding out a bag to Gail as bill brought her inside, her eyes were barely open. "Thank you love." Gail followed Bill upstairs eager to tuck her little girl in, to kiss her Goodnight, only a few days apart made Gail anxious to have her close again. "They both passed out 30 minutes before town; they should sleep through the night, we spent the day hiking." Bill leaned down and kissed Sophie's forehead as she pouted and turned away from him. "Sleepy." Sophie complained squeezing her eyes shut. "Night love, see you in the morning." Gail laughed, pulling the covers up to her shoulders and turning on her night light.

"She is a carbon copy of you." Bill laughed following his daughter downstairs. "It's scares me sometimes, Sophie has mastered all of Gail's facial expressions." Holly smiled up at the pair, laughing when Gail glared back at her. "She knows how to use it to her advantage too!" Tracie shook her head as she brought dinner to the table. "Just like her mother, sophie knows that her signature pout will get her just about anything." Elaine grinned as she helped Tracie carry the food out.

"I put Leo in the guest room; he's out like a light." Steve shut the guest room door before walking back towards the kitchen. Two years ago, both pecked children would have laughed and ran away at the mention of marriage and children. Gail still wondered how both of them managed to grow up so quickly. An 11 year old and a 13 year old between the two, Elaine had taken so quickly to Leo nearly giving him a sugar overdose when he asked to take the peck name now that Dex was completely out of the picture.

"How were they?" Gail made her way back into the kitchen, placing the bag that Sophie had handed her by the fridge. "They were great, they asked to spend the summer up there like you guys used to with Pop and Gran." Elaine smiled before pulling Holly into a hug, Gail could do without hugging for a while, their happy hour at the penny had put most of her colleagues on a new hit list for initiating unnecessary physical contact. "Are you planning on spending the summer at the cabin the way Gran and Pop did?" Steve asked with and amused smirk as Bill cornered Gail gently squeezing her shoulder. "I think so; it's the only way to continue the tradition." Bill nodded before bulling the scowling Gail into a hug. "Congratulations kiddo." Bill stepped back and kissed Gail's forehead "You did great."

"Welcome to the family holly." Elaine lifted holly's hand to examine the ring, a pleased smile appearing on her lips before looking towards Gail. "You thought this through didn't you Gail, smooth ring so it won't rip her gloves in the field." Elaine stepped aside allowing Bill to both great and congratulate Holly. "This definitely wasn't a last minute decision." Gail blushed, angling herself to avoid her mother's arms that were outstretched as she backed Gail into the counter. "Come here." Elaine laughed, pulling Gail into a tight hug; the millionth one Gail assumed she had received that day. "I'm proud of you Gail, you have a beautiful family." Elaine kissed Gail's cheek before walking towards the bar to pour herself a glass of wine.

Gail stood in shock; her mother had never told her she was proud of anything she had done. "You ok babe?" Holly laced her fingers with Gail's noticing her dazed expression, aiming to keep her contact with Gail to a minimum; she knew that Gail did not want to be touched right now. "Yeah, I'll tell you later." Gail let out a small laughed and walked towards the table where Tracie had started to plate their dinner. When Tracie and Steve officially married and Sophie's adoption had finalized, the Peck dinners started alternating between the three peck households. There was no longer an overwhelming dread about the dinners, they spent their time catching up and talked mostly about the kids.

* * *

 

"Ready for bed?" Holly fell onto the couch nearly on top of Gail, she had put the last load of laundry in the machine and the kitchen had been cleaned. "Almost." Gail held the gift bag out to holly, running the towel over her hair again, content to have showered and rid herself of people's germs. "It's addressed to H&G, I'm guessing my mom wrote the card." Gail moved to let holly rest between her legs. "Seems fancy." Holly leaned back into Gail, smiling as Gail's arms instantly wrapped around her waist pulling her closer. "You should open it." Gail kissed along holly's neck, taking advantage of their current position wanting to just be close to Holly for a while, not feeling the need to push farther. "Yeah." Holly nearly purred turning to grant Gail access to the length of her neck, Gail knew that kissing along her neck distracted her. "Let's open it nerd." Gail muttered against her shoulder before hugging Holly tighter, resting her chin on holly's shoulder.

"Tease." Holly sighed before pulling a silver frame out of the bag. "Oh my god." Holly gasped, looking at the drawing behind the glass. Written across the top of the picture in bold red marker I love my mom's stood out against the white background. "Gail." Holly teared up seeing that Sophie had Drawn Gail, Holly, an angel and herself, Sophie stood between Gail and Holly smiling big. "Wow." Gail traced over the lettering, Mom, Mama, and Mommy had been written under Gail, Holly, and the angel. Sophie loved to draw and paint everyone at the station had at least two Sophie originals, many of her drawings were framed in Elaine's office.

Gail dropped her hand and watched Holly's chest rise in uneven patterns. "You ok there nerd?" Gail breathed against her ear, running her nose against her cheek. "Yeah." Holly sniffled setting the frame down before wiping her eyes. "Are you ok with this?" holly asked, attempting to control her breathing. "Are you ok with it lunchbox?" Gail countered, moving the frame from holly's lap to the coffee table before moving to lie next to holly, needing to see her face. "If I say yes?" holly asked, rolling to bury her face in the front of Gail's sweater. "Hey." Gail smiled, trying to coax holly back so she could see her again. "Hols." Gail smiled, stroking her hair, loving how shy holly had suddenly become.

"Your daughter doesn't play fair Gail; she knows what strings to pull to get me to cry." Holly laughed, glancing up at Gail trying to control her tears. "Minor detail." Gail breathed kissing holly softly running her thumb along holly's cheek. "She wants to be your daughter too." Gail smiled when holly's eyes lit up and the smile on her lips grew. "Our daughter?" holly asked, biting her lip before laughing . "I really like the way that sounds Gail." Holly finally locked eyes with Gail, her blue eyes seeming to shine with love. "Me too nerd." Gail smiled, pulling holly into her arms again.

* * *

 

**AN: next chapter starts a new case and someone getting hurt…**

 


	11. 11

The sound of Holly’s phone ringing woke Gail before it woke Holly, the alarm clock read 3:20 AM and Gail wanted to throw Holly’s phone across the room. “Make it stop.” Gail complained, trying to bury her head under Holly’s Pillow. Holly blindly felt around her nightstand for the offending phone, she had been having a wonderful dream about their future wedding and she did not want to be intercepted by work. “Dr. Stewart.” Holly muttered into the phone before rolling over to wrap her arms around Gail.

“Dr. Stewart, I'm sorry to wake you. Dr. McAndrews is working a case for 27 and we have a situation.” Callahan stated, his voice coming across as both apologetic and annoyed. “Text me the address, I’ll be there soon.” Holly sighed releasing Gail and sitting up, as much as she wanted to stay in bed, she knew she would need to make quick work of her morning routine or risk falling back asleep. “And Detective Callahan, you better have coffee there when I arrive.” Holly hung up and made her way to the in suite bathroom to quickly shower. Her morning routine shouldn’t have started for at least another 3 hours, the major downside of being the Chief M.E. meant always being on call.

When Holly reentered their bedroom, she noticed that Gail no long occupied their bed which seemed odd, but she knew that Gail’s actions often surprised her. Holly pulled on a pair of jeans and a button up shirt and made her way downstairs. “Coffee and a muffin.” Gail squinted, holding out a travel mug and a paper bag, her hair in complete disarray and her shirt hanging off her shoulder. “Thank you.” Holly smiled as Gail nodded and leaned forward to kiss her. “Be safe, have a good day, love you.” Gail muttered before walking back upstairs to their bedroom. Holly pulled on her work boots and grabbed her coat before walking out the door, she wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep.

~

“What do we have?” Holly asked as she made her way to Duncan, who stood at the perimeter of the scene. The address Callahan had sent to her phone lead her to a storage facility near the morgue.  “Detective Callahan will fill you in, he told me to wait here with this and to escort you inside.” Duncan smiled, holding out a large paper coffee cup, Holly had finished the coffee Gail had made on her drive over, but she knew that the ungodly hour would require copious amounts of caffeine. “You’re a good man Officer Moore.” Holly gladly took the still steaming cup of coffee from Duncan and followed him into the building.

“The scene’s at the end of hallway D, a total of 3 units were auctioned off yesterday afternoon from the same owner. Three different people bought the units for nearly 2 thousand dollars each.” Detective Callahan called out from further down the hall once he saw Holly approaching. “Thank your officer Moore, please ensure no one crosses the tape and don’t release information to the press.” Callahan motioned for Holly to follow him as he turned to walk back toward the makeshift command station.

“So why am I here for storage lockers?” Holly gingerly sipped her coffee trying not to spill it or burn her mouth. Her multi tasking skills would not be fully functional for a while, she knew she risked ruining her shirt if she tried to gulp down her coffee and walk at the same time. “The lockers were filled with junk, various tools and household items, each locker also held two large freezers.” Callahan watched Holly before sighing, she wasn’t necessarily paying attention to him. “The lucky winners of each auction came across the same issue, two freezers, two bodies, 6 in total.” Callahan smirked when Holly rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Thanks, I can do math, I did tutor you in high school after all.” Holly muttered before walking up to Erin her lab tech. “You will never let me forget that, will you?” Callahan glared at Holly who just shook her head with a triumphant smile.

“Dr. Stewart, the techs are bagging the evidence out here, everything inside the lockers has been cataloged and photographed, and you’re free to work.” Erin nodded and held her hand out to take Holly’s coffee. “When did you arrive on scene?” Holly asked, handing her coffee over to Erin while pulling on a pair of latex gloves. “We have been here for 3 hours, I told Detective Callahan not to call you out until you could access the bodies, no need for you to just stand around and wait.” Erin nodded and walked towards the other techs labeling evidence bags on a large folding table. “I don’t know if she is afraid of you or if she’s in love with you.” Callahan laughed, leading the way into the first of three 18x 24 storage rooms. “shut up.” Holly groaned, trying to adjust the harsh lighting in the storage lockers.

Holly walked around the freezers photographing the serial number plate and the date of maintenance before opening the door to slide the table out. Inside laid a man in his early 60’s gray hair and balding, dressed in a black suit and dress shoes. The second freezer held a woman around the same age in a skirt suit and heels, her make-up pristinely done; the couple appeared to be ready for a memorial viewing. “Thoughts?” Callahan questioned when Holly pushed the bodies back into the freezers and closed the doors. “Freezers are medical grade, the same type we have in the lab to preserve cadavers, they have both had maintenance work done in the last year, and the address listed on the maintenance sticker doesn’t match this one.” Holly nodded and made her way into the second storage room.

The third and fourth freezers held another man and woman in their early 60’s dressed in a suit and a ball gown. Holly noted the same maintenance dates on the freezers before moving to the last locker, from her initial observations she could offer little information. “All victims are in their early 60’s maybe late 50’s each of them has been carefully preserved, only a medical professional would understand the logistics of freezing a body  without causing external and aesthetic damage to the corpses. Once I have them back at the lab I’ll be able to complete the exams and autopsies.” Holly pulled off her gloves and watched Callahan note the information.

“Thanks, I’ll have Duncan drop breakfast by the lab around 6.” Callahan nodded and walked towards the group of officers sifting through the piles of miscellaneous garbage near the exit. “The bodies and freezers will be in the lab in 20 minutes, we have 3 of them in the truck already.” Erin came bouncing over holding out Holly’s coffee cup. “Thank you Erin.” Holly nodded and took the cup from her, feeling the effects of the coffee she had on the way kicking in. “Need me in the lab, or here?” Erin asked checking her phone for the time; Holly wondered if she needed to test Erin for un-prescribed Adderall use, no one should be this perky before 5 am. “Please stay here and collect residual evidence that may have been missed under the freezers.” Holly nodded before walking back towards her jeep. 6 bodies would take up the rest of her day and would probably be the cause of her missing dinner tonight.

~

Holly had spent her morning examining the bodies from the storage lockers, after running the maintenance information Callahan connected the bodies and the freezers to a funeral home robbery 8 months prior. He had sent over the original case files as well as the hospital and funeral home records with more coffee at 10. Holly had laughed when Duncan nearly passed out at the sight of the bodies that had taken over the lab, he still hadn’t gained his “morgue legs” as Gail called it, the sight of a dead body still made him queasy.

The files Callahan had uncovered matched the bodies from the storage lockers, each body had been prepared for funeral services at the time of the robbery; however, Holly found secondary signs of trauma. The initial reports stated that all of the deceased had died under doctor's care and had not been autopsied, the incisions and reconstruction of the internal organs confused Holly.  She had completed secondary autopsies on each of the bodies in record time, she would have time to have lunch with Gail in an hour and hopefully finish her day at a reasonable time.

“Knock Knock!” Callahan stood in the doorway with a women Holly did not recognize, she looked to be around his age with shoulder length nearly black hair. “Dr. Stewart this is Detective Knight from 27, she responded to the original robbery, we are now running this investigation through both divisions.” Callahan motioned between the two before pulling out his pen and notepad.  The woman eyed Holly t-shirt causing Holly to glance down at the Toronto Police Academy shirt she had changed into. “Nice shirt.” Callahan laughed, as Holly’s eyes grew bigger in surprise. “I spilt coffee on my shirt laughing at Duncan pour kid still can’t stomach the lab, and this happened to be in my jeep.” Holly muttered before taking off her lab coat that still had a large coffee stain on the front.

“Nice to meet you Detective Knight.” Holly nodded as she handed Callahan a copy of her reports. “The bodies recovered from the storage lockers are the bodies that had been stolen from the funeral home.” Holly stated, pulling on her arms, trying to stretch away the ache, it had been a while since she had performed 6 autopsies in the same day. “The medical reports and the files from the funeral home for each victim state that they died under doctor's care and that no autopsies had been performed. Professional autopsies were performed on each body prior to my exam however. While it’s not a homicide, whoever stole the bodies had extensive medical training. We found trace evidence inside Mrs. Goldstone, the lab is running tests right now, and it’s a safe bet that whoever did the autopsies cut themselves during the process, we recovered a bloody piece of latex from her chest cavity.” Holly stretched her neck before walking towards the first exam table on the other side of the room.

“The shape and length of the incision tells me that whoever performed these autopsies has completed their training in the last 6 to 8 years. The stitch pattern used to close each victim indicates that they were trained in Europe. We will have more information in the morning once the test results come in.” Holly pointed out the incision before showing Callahan and Knight the pictures of the original sutures. Callahan handed the file to Knight before moving to each body and checking the incision pictures against the new sutures Holly had placed. “So I’m looking for a European doctor in their 30’s?” Callahan mused after he had checked the last body. “That doesn’t match any of the original suspects we interviewed.” Knight spoke up handing the file back to Callahan, the woman seemed disinterested in Holly’s findings and explanation.

“So much for cut and dry.” Callahan muttered tucking the folder under his arm. “Can you run Tox screens to ensure the deaths were natural?” Callahan’s brow furrowed, Holly knew that he hated complicated cases. “Each of the bodies had been embalmed prior to the robbery, the Tox screens we have been able to run haven’t come up with anything, that could be due to deterioration from date of death as well as the embalming process.” Holly watched as Callahan took notes before glancing up at her.

“If this turns into a homicide I'm handing it off to Peck.” Callahan muttered causing Holly to laugh, since rejoining 15 Callahan had moved from homicide to what Gail described as the general investigation unit. “Please don’t this is now a joint case and I’ve had better conversations with a brick wall, I would prefer not to work with the ice queen on this.” Detective Knight huffed looking down at her phone; Holly just stared at the woman standing in her lab, trying to find the best insult for the brunette. Callahan watched Holly wide eyed, He knew from experience that Holly had the same verbal lashing skill’s that Gail possessed. “Don’t get me wrong, I mean she’s extremely attractive, but I need a partner who is more than a pretty face to look at.” Detective Knight continued causing Callahan to start laughing uncomfortably.

“What’s so funny?” Detective Knight asked, looking up as Holly turned towards her desk; PECK was printed in bold black letters across the back of her t-shirt. “Oh my god, I'm so sorry, I shouldn’t have said that about your sister in law, everyone has such great things to say about Steve’s wife.” Detective Knight tried to correct herself as Callahan lost his composure and started laughing harder.

“Why are you laughing like an idiot Luke?” Gail asked from the doorway to the lab, a scowl on her face and a paper bag clutched in her hand. Holly smirked as the blood drained from Detective Knights face, Holly knew that Gail had just walked into the lab and hadn’t heard Detective Knights commentary. “Sorry, it’s just going to be so funny.” Callahan choked out between fits of laughter, tears now streaming down his face. “Weirdo.” Gail muttered, holding the paper bag out towards Holly. “Ready for lunch?” Gail turned her attention to Holly who smiled and nodded at her.

“I’ll have my reports sent over when the test results come in.” Holly nodded towards Callahan and Knight as she joined Gail in the doorway. “Oh, I forgot.” Callahan finally gained his composure, a devious smile playing on his lips. “Congratulations on your engagement.” Callahan called as Holly reached out for Gail’s hand. “Thanks.” Gail grinned as Holly tugged her towards her office, they could hear the muffled bickering coming from the lab.

“What was that about?” Gail asked once Holly shut her office door. “Detective Knight from 27 thinks you’re an extremely attractive ice queen who has the social skills of a brick wall.” Holly shrugged, moving to clear off the coffee table in her office. Holly learned early on in their relationship that Gail had heard a lot worse when it came to how people perceived her as both a cop and the ice queen. “Detective Knight should say that to my face.” Gail muttered carefully removing her jacket. “She also thought I was Steve’s wife, so that made things interesting.” Holly laughed to herself as Gail slowly eased herself onto the couch. “You ok?” Holly noticed Gail’s expression change from annoyed to hurt as she moved. “I did something to my back, it’s been bothering me all day.” Gail whined as she organized their lunch on the coffee table.

“How long’s your lunch break?” Holly broke their comfortable silence, she was happy to be out of the morgue for a little while and off her feet. “I’m done for the day, my back was bugging me too much to sit at my desk.” Gail complained as she finished eating, she reached towards her lower back and tried to knead the tender muscles. She had noticed the pain when she dropped Sophie off for school this morning, how the simple act of getting out of her SUV caused discomfort, it grew to worse the longer she sat in her uncomfortable desk chair.

Holly quickly finished her lunch and leaned back against the armrest of the couch. “Come here.” Holly motioned for Gail to lay back against her, Gail’s back hurt her from time to time, normally heat and rest corrected the issue. Holly watched as Gail slowly moved to lie against Holly’s front, her legs resting against the opposite armrest. “You should get your back checked out; this is the 3rd time in two months that it's acted up.” Holly muttered as she kissed the nape of Gail’s neck, slowly untucking Gail’s button up shirt. “I have an appointment next week.” Gail sighed as Holly pushed her shirt up past her hips. “Tell me if this hurts.” Holly breathed as she slowly pressed her thumbs into the flesh of Gail’s back, feeling the knots and tense muscles contract under the pads of her fingers.  Gail groaned and pressed back into Holly, her face scrunching up as Holly’s thumbs pressed into a particularly sensitive area.

“Sorry.” Holly murmured easing the pressure and move to a new spot, noticing Gail’s face relax and her eyes fluttered closed. Holly continued her massage as Gail drifted to sleep, her breaths evening out and her body completely relaxing against Her. Holly wondered if they needed a new mattress, or if Gail should ease off her yoga routine for a few weeks to let her back heal. Holly felt Gail’s back muscles spasm as the blonde jerked awake with a yelp, she had only been asleep for a few minutes. “Mother fucker.” Gail cringed, standing straight up, both of her hands reaching for the spot the pain radiated from. “Are you ok?” Holly had only seen Gail move that quickly for two things, free drinks and sex, her concern grew the long Gail stayed silent. “No” Gail grunted through clenched teeth as she shook her head. “Ok, let’s go I'm taking you to see Dr. Cromwell.” Holly stood up and grabbed her keys and bag; surprisingly the blonde didn’t put up a fight as she followed Holly out to the morgue parking lot.

~

Gail laid on the exam table face down, her shirt and bra now removed as the doctor poked at her lower back. “Do you sleep on your stomach?” Dr. Cromwell asked marking areas along Gail’s back with a pen; Holly sat nears Gail’s head running her thumb up and down the blondes forearm. “Mostly.” Gail grunted as he pressed along her spin. “Have you had prior back injuries?” He moved towards Gail’s head notating her responses on her chart. “No.” Gail muttered her eyes locked on Holly’s mouth, she had been chewing on her lower lips since they entered the exam room. “Ok I need for you to put your head here.” He pointed towards the head rest. “I need to check your spine.” Gail moved to rest her face on the cushion and dropping her arms to the side of the table as Dr. Cromwell adjusted her position.

“Give me.” Gail muttered lacing her fingers with Holly’s, Holly found Gail’s neediness amusing when she was injured or sick, the normally tough cop turned into a baby. “I need to put pressure on your spine, if it’s uncomfortable, let me know.” Dr. Cromwell stated before pressing down on Gail’s back, Holly watched as he moved lower and Gail’s grip on her hand grew tighter. “Ow.” Gail complained, trying to move away from his touch. “I need to order a few tests, I will be back shortly.” Dr. Cromwell nodded towards Holly before leaving the room.

“You ok love?” Holly asked as Gail moved to rest her head on her arm again, the pout made Holly worry. “Just hurts.” Gail muttered, running her thumb over Holly’s engagement ring. “Can you ask my mom or Andy to pick up Sophie from school, the sitter’s out of town today.” Gail searched Holly’s face, they had finally found a sitter for Sophie when they both were working late or had been called out to a case.

“Sam is picking her up, Andy is on shift and your parents are both in meetings.” Holly smiled leaning forward to kiss Gail’s forehead. They had been in the doctor’s office for an hour already and Holly knew they would be here at least another hour before they knew the cause of Gail’s discomfort. “We need to run some tests; right now I'm almost positive that you have a herniated disk.” Dr. Cromwell noted setting a tray on the table near Gail’s chart. “I’ll bring you to radiology for an MRI and we will discuss our options once we have the results.” Dr. Cromwell set a surgical gown on the counter and pointed to it, Holly nodded as he walked out. “You need to stand up so I can help you put this on.” Holly smiled as she moved to grab the gown. Gail groaned as she slowly eased herself off the exam table and into a standing position.

Holly held the gown open to Gail as she stepped closer, she usually enjoyed looking over Gail’s naked form, right now she knew that Gail was in pain and that normal extracurricular activities would be off the table and looking over her body made her feel guilty. “I’ll make Mac and Cheese for dinner and you can have all of the junk food you can eat, I promise.” Holly smiled as Gail wrapped her arms around her. “I just wanna go home and sleep.” Gail mumbled against her neck, Holly could hear the frustration in her voice. “Soon I promise.” Holly kissed her hair as she tied the gown closed. “I need you to remove your belt and pants.” Holly laughed as Gail made no effort to move. “You do it.” Gail muttered as Holly reached between them to undo Gail’s belt and zipper, slowly pushing Gail’s pants over her hips and holding onto the blonde as she stepped out of them.


	12. 12

**A/N: This chapter is more domestic with a small amount of the case towards the end…**

"Bed rest, no heavy lifting, no sleeping on my stomach, and no sex." Gail groaned from the passenger seat of the car. "For three days." Holly rolled her eyes as she drove home, Gail had a herniated lumbar disk, potentially caused by her posture and her chair at work. "That's three days Holly, 72 hours. UGH!" Gail groaned stuffing the treatment papers into the glove box haphazardly. "Three days with no work, three days without Chloe, that's a plus for both of us. I don't have to hear you complain about Chloe and you don't have to see her." Holly laughed, pulling onto their street; Gail had been complaining since they left the hospital, Holly attributed Gail's current mood to being hungry and tired.

Holly noticed Sam's truck parked in front of the house when she pulled into the garage, luckily this time Sam hadn't blocked the driveway. It had been a long day for both of them, Holly was ready to make a quick dinner and call it an early night. She climbed out of her jeep and waited for Gail to ease herself out of her seat, the doctor had given her and epidural steroid injection before leaving the hospital. Gail's movement had improved slightly; her tight muscles still limited her speed though.

"You're making mac and cheese still, right!?" Gail asked shuffling towards the door a pout seemingly permanently placed on her face. As much as Holly loved the petulant expression, she knew that Sophie would have a fit if Gail kept it up. "Come here." Holly reached out and tugged gently on Gail's belt loops urging her forward, she watched as Gail stared down at the space between then for a moment before leaning forward to capture Gail's protruding bottom lip between her own. "That better not be an, I'm leaving for work and not cooking kiss." Gail huffed as Holly pulled away, a smile playing at the corner of her lips and she shook her head and leaned in for another kiss, she gently ran her tongue along Gail's bottom lip exciting a frustrated groan from the blonde. Gail pulled away from Holly as the furrow on her brow deepened. "No sex." She breathed against Holly's lips her eyes still closed; she licked at her bottom lip as Holly moved farther away from her. "Please try to be less grumpy with Sophie; you know she worries." Holly opened the door leading into the house letting Gail step inside.

They both stood silently observing the scene before them, the radio playing from the living room while Sam moved around the kitchen humming to himself. Sophie sat at the table reading from her history book seemingly unaware of the world around her. "Snacks!" Sam called setting a plate with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich down in front of Sophie. "Thanks, uncle Sam." Sophie didn't look up as she moved the plate closer to her and continued reading. "You're nerd is contagious." Gail laughed walking farther into the room, her destination predetermined when she saw her studious daughter.

"Hey Soph" Gail grinned, leaning down to kiss the top of Sophie's head, the little girl jerked up and stared at Gail with worried eyes. "Mom are you ok, Uncle Sam told me you were at the doctors." Sophie searched Gail's face before glancing over her body, looking for obvious signs of an injury or illness. "I hurt my back; I'll be 100% in a few days. Nothing to worry about." Gail smiled, holding her arms out to allow Sophie to examine her. "Can I hug you?" Sophie asked timidly as she stood up, an apprehensive expression on her face as she moved towards Gail. "Always Soph." Gail pulled Sophie into her arms and hugged her as tight as her sore muscles would allow.

"Thank you for picking her up from school." Holly smiled, standing next to Sam in the kitchen, watching Gail and Sophie in the dining room. "No problem, gave me an excuse to leave work early." Sam grinned picking up his keys. "Good luck on your test kid and feel better Peck." Sam called before walking out the door offering no other form of goodbye. Holly still wasn't accustom to Sam's abrupt exits, he never had much to say but always seemed to be in a pleasant mood.

"Uncle Sam didn't let you have too much junk food did he?" Holly asked putting a pot in the sink and turning on the tap, she knew that both Gail and Sophie would be begging for dinner if she waited to start cooking. "No, he wouldn't stop for ice cream." Sophie pouted giving Gail half of her peanut butter and jelly sandwich. "Well, I'm making 4 cheese mac and cheese for dinner." Holly laughed when Sophie grinned up at Gail and back at Holly. "Best day ever!" Sophie declared turning back to her textbook; they had a rule that homework had to be complete before dinner to free up time for family activities once they were done eating.

Gail stood by the table for a moment, watching Sophie's finger guide her on the page, Gail knew that without Holly, Sophie would need a tutor in high school to help her with her advanced homework. She would start taking high school level math and reading courses next year, the thought often worried Gail.

"Hey, I'm going to shower." Gail walked up to Holly and kissed her softly before turning to walk up the stairs. Holly and Sophie watched as Gail climbed the stairs with more effort than usual before turning to each other. "Is mom really ok?" Sophie asked as her eyes drifted around the room, Holly knew that Sophie worried about losing Gail to her job. It had been a constant theme in Sophie's therapy sessions for nearly a year. "Mom hurt her back; they gave her medicine and instructions on how to heal properly. She needs a different chair at work, but she will be back to her old self in a few days." Holly smiled, setting the pot filled with water on the stove.

"Do you need help studying for your history test?" Holly offered, attempting to bring Sophie's attention away from Gail's injury, she didn't need her worry to add more stress to her night. "No Uncle Sam taught me a mnemonic device." Sophie laughed, closing her eyes and turning towards Holly. "Never a plan like yours to study oral history so wisely, equals, Norman, Angevin, Plantagenet, Lancaster, York, Tudor, Stuart, Orange, Hanover, Saxe-Coburg, and Windsor. The Royal houses!" Sophie grinned as Holly nodded impressed. "You'll ace it." Holly nodded before pulling her ringing phone from her back pocket.

"What can I do for you detective Callahan?" Holly answered wedging the phone between her shoulder and her ear, if Callahan was calling her into work she needed to at least prep the rest of their dinner. Gail would be unhappy that she had to finish dinner but at least they wouldn't order take out. "I have case files for you to look over; can you come to the station?" Callahan asked shyly, he hated asking Holly for favors. "Can they wait until the morning when I'm in my office?" Holly asked, watching as Sophie pretended to not be eavesdropping; she loved Luke and his crazy stories.

"Why don't you bring them to the house, I'm making dinner, if you bring ice cream I'm sure Sophie won't mind sharing her mac and cheese." Holly laughed as Sophie nodded enthusiastically from her seat. "Knights with me." Callahan laughed, she could hear the shuffling of paper and footsteps coming through the line. "Is she going to insult my fiancé again?" Holly asked, pouring two boxes of noodles into the now boiling water, even if Callahan and Knight ditched dinner she knew Gail would eat any remaining Mac and Cheese, it never seemed to last the night. "She'll be on her best behavior." Callahan confirmed, Holly could hear a muffled voice behind Callahan arguing. "Dinner will be ready in 20 minutes. You don't eat if you're late." Holly hung up and busied herself with the remaining prep work for their dinner.

"Can I show Luke my photo book?" Sophie asked packing her homework into her bag, an eager smile appearing on her face. "I'm sure he would love to see it." Holly grinned as Sophie ran upstairs to grab the album she had been working on for the past few months. Holly loved how domestic her life had become, preparing dinner and listening to Sophie talk about her homework and her friends at school.

The doorbell rang just as Holly heard the shower cut off upstairs. "Can you finish setting the table please?" Holly asked Sophie as she made her way to the door, Luke per usual had shown up 4 minutes early. "I brought Ice Cream and the best donuts in town." Callahan grinned when Holly opened the door, Knight stood behind him holding the stack of case files awkwardly. "I'm sure one of the Peck's will thank you." Holly laughed, letting Callahan and Knight into the house.

"Um, I'm sorry for this afternoon, I'm a bitch and I shouldn't open my mouth." Knight stood awkwardly in the hall as Luke kicked out of his shoes. "MAMA! She has to put money in the swear jar!" Sophie yelled causing Holly to laugh. "Sorry, Sophie's right, 5 bucks in the swear jar." Holly held out her hand as knight sighed and pulled out her wallet and handed Holly 5 dollars. "Should I take off my shoes?" Knight asked looking at the shoe rack by the door. "If you don't mind." Holly smiled and walked towards the living room.

"The dollar price didn't stop Peck from swearing?" Callahan asked moving the case files to the coffee table in the living room. "Mom paid me 100 dollars up front when Aunt Andy threw her birthday party, had to up the ante as Pop says." Sophie laughed, holding the fishbowl out to Holly; Callahan laughed seeing what easily added up to 500 bucks in the jar. "Well Oliver is very good at weaseling money out of people, have you made a deposit at the bank yet?" Callahan asked, staring into the jar trying to count the bills on top. "Uncle Sam just added 50 dollars to the jar this afternoon; He said that I should be able to get 10 degree's." Sophie grinned, setting the fishbowl on the table where it generally lived. The house rule had started when Sophie moved in, a dollar per word to start a college fund, the main contributors to the bowl were Gail, Steve, and Sam but most of 15 added to the pot every time they came over.

"I have $700 in a savings account; Grandma and Grandpa say they will double my money when I reach 2 thousand dollars." Sophie giggled before looking at Callahan. "Which will be soon if Mom and Mama let Uncle Sam watch me more." Sophie kept laughing as Holly rolled her eyes. "I'll be having a talk with Uncle Sam about his language." Holly muttered, hearing the sock clad footfalls on the stairs.

"Holly, can you check my…. Why are there people in our house!?" Gail asked, stopping halfway down the stairs. She stood with her T-shirt in hand, wearing sweats and a black sports bra glaring at Callahan and Knight. "I invited them, is your back ok?" Holly asked Gail, who just pouted and walked the rest of the way down the stairs. "Yeah, there's a bruise where they gave me the shot." Gail stopped in front of Holly, her hair a wild damp mess. "That's normal. It will be tender in the morning." Holly muttered, running her thumb along Gail's hip looking over the injection site. Gail had nearly punched the nurse when they gave her the shot.

"Who are you?" Sophie asked, standing in front of Knight, her eyes shifting over the woman's face. "I'm Detective Knight; you can call me Serena though." Knight smiled, holding her hand out to Sophie. "Do you work with my mom or my mama?" Sophie asked, staring at Knights hand before shaking it. "Both of them at the moment." Knight smiled as Sophie nodded and grabbed Callahan's hand dragging him towards the living room. "You have to see my photo book!" Sophie declared making Callahan sit down, completely ignoring Knight as she excitedly placed the book in Luke's lap.

"How old is she?" Knight asked, turning to Gail as she pulled her shirt over her head with Holly's help. "She is 11 going on 25." Gail muttered threw the material of her shirt trying to sound at least polite, she would rather not host a dinner for the woman who had thought she couldn't hold a conversation. "I have a nephew the same age." Knight nodded before glancing around the room, unsure how to behave in Gail and Holly's home. "It's an interesting age, that's for sure." Gail shrugged, walking towards the table gingerly pressing into her back.

"Can we please eat, I'm starving." Gail asked as she sat down, Knight watched her, confused by the sudden shift in conversation and the foggy look in Gail's eyes. "Please excuse her; she may be a little high on pain meds right now." Holly laughed handing Knight the mac and cheese while she grabbed a pitcher of iced tea from the counter. "She hurt her back and she doesn't have a tolerance for aspirin, the heavier stuff hits her pretty hard." Holly ushered Knight towards the table before calling Callahan and Sophie to eat.

"McNally said that you haven't set a date?" Callahan asked, taking the seat next to Sophie, a smile playing on his lips as he spoke, children brought out the best in Gail and Luke. "We have only been engaged for a week, we're adjusting still." Holly laughed as Gail shrugged and filled her plate with pasta.

"I heard that you just moved here?" Knight asked as Gail handed her the serving spoon. "I just moved back, I did a 2 year teaching program in San Francisco." Holly nodded as Gail grinned at her, the goofy smile that she had come to love since picking Gail up after the grow op incident. "That sounds like a fun position." Knight nodded, handing the spoon to Callahan who served Sophie before serving himself. "I had a blast, but I'm glad to be back in Toronto working with 15 and home with my family." Holly smiled at Sophie who nodded with a big grin. "Mama lives here now and it's amazing!" Sophie laughed, causing both Gail and Holly's smiles to grow wider. "It is amazing, huh?" Gail asked high fiving Sophie. "We are all happy to have Holly back in Toronto." Callahan Smiled before handing Holly his filled plate in exchange for her. "Thank you for dinner doc." Callahan nodded as they all started eating, small talk coming easily as Gail's current state of slightly high made her more talkative than normal.

* * *

 

"I have a question." Holly muttered, setting her book down, her and Gail had been lying in bed for a while both reading. Holly had agreed to go over the case files in the morning with Callahan because their dinner had run longer than expected and they had all been awake for longer than normal. "Hmm?" Gail dropped the latest issue of Guns and Ammo magazine onto the mattress next to her. "Don't laugh." Holly stared down as Gail moved to lay her head on Holly's lap, stretching out on the bed with minimal pain. "You and I both know that I can't keep that promise." Gail grinned as Holly started playing with her hair. "When we get married, no after we're married, 10 years from now are people going to call me Stewart?" Holly asked, brushing Gail's hair back from her forehead, Gail thought for a moment before reaching up to still Holly's hand, Gail knew that there was more to the question than holly had initially let on.

"It's just that Sam and Andy have been married for almost two years and she took his last name and its on her vest and her uniform, but everyone still call's her McNally." Holly chewed on her lip watching the slow smile sweep across Gail's Lips. "They will call you Holly or Doc; no one calls you just Stewart. If you want them to call you Dr. Stewart that's fine babe." Gail ran her thumb along the side of Holly's hand as she spoke, trying to ease Holly's worry.

"It's hard to break habits, Tracie and Andy have always been Nash and McNally and they will always be Nash and McNally even though they are Peck and Swarek now." Gail shrugged as Holly just nodded, her lip still worried between her teeth. Gail slowly sat up and straddled Holly's lap, looking into her eyes before continuing. "I'll arrest anyone who call's you Stewart." Gail grinned, leaning forward to kiss Holly softly. "Because you'll be my wife and they should all know that." Gail laughed, kissing Holly's forehead trying to not get carried away, she had strict doctors' orders that said no sex for 3 days.

"It's weird to worry about, I just don't want to confuse people, and I want to be Mrs. Peck." Holly ran her hands along Gail's thighs before meeting her eyes. "And you will be, my future wife." Gail grinned, kissing Holly again, letting the kiss deepen before Holly's phone interpreted them. "Boo." Gail pouted moving from Holly's lap to her side of the bed.

"What's up Callahan?" Holly asked, placing her book on her nightstand before turning to Gail, she reached out and ran her hand long Gail's forearm, smiling at the woman who had stolen her heart. "We have a situation in 27's area." Callahan breathed into the phone, Holly didn't know what to make of his tone but either way she would be needed on scene. "Text me the address, I'll be there soon." Holly hung up and climbed out of bed, annoyed that she wouldn't be sleeping tonight.

"They have a situation and I need to head out." Holly groaned walking into their closet to put on work appropriate clothing. "I'll probably be home tomorrow around lunch time; I'll bring food and your prescriptions. I'll see if Steve or Tracie can pick Sophie up for school." Holly mumbled as she came back into the room in jeans and a t-shirt. "Promise me that you will stay in the house, and you'll veg out all day?" Holly asked, sitting on Gail's side of the bed as she pulled on her socks. "I promise, be safe, text me if you need anything." Gail smiled when Holly leaned over and kissed her quickly. "I will, I love you." Holly stood quickly and walked out of the room knowing that she needed to hurry because the scene was across town.

* * *

 

Holly followed an officer she didn't know towards the crime scene, it had taken her nearly an hour to drive to the storage facility and she wasn't in best of moods. "Dr. Stewart is here." The officer called before turning to walk back the way they came. Holly had never worked with the officers from 27; she caught onto the fact that they were not as open and inviting as 15 had been even before she started dating Gail. "Holly, how's the brat?" Tracie asked with a wide smile standing with Callahan and Knight near the door to the unit. "She is at home, hopefully asleep, 3 days bed rest and physical therapy." Holly laughed ducking under the tape and glancing around the locker.

This locker was significantly smaller than the three from earlier, devoid of clutter only the medical freezer sat in the middle of the room. "Is this your case now?" Holly asked, pulling on a pair of latex gloves, she noticed her lab techs cataloging small evidence bags In the hall. "Yeah, I'm working the case with Detective Knight and Detective Callahan." Tracie nodded as Detective Knight laughed nervously, Holly noticed her pale expression and sweaty forehead. "Never thought I'd work with all of the Pecks in the same day." Knight held out a large paper coffee cup, her hand shaking slightly. "Callahan told me to buy you coffee."

"Thank you for the coffee. Can you either set it on my bag or hold it until I've done my run through?" Holly asked, looking down at her gloves; Knight nodded quickly placing the cup back in the tray she held. "What information do you have?" Holly asked, walking towards the freezer, the maintenance sticker didn't match the other freezers and the make and model were different.

"An anonymous tip came in this evening at 8 PM claiming they had found a body in this locker. 27 responded to the tip, they opened the locker to find the freezer, they called us in before touching anything. The body is covered in a blood stained sheet and from what I can tell; it's not all one person." Tracie spoke looking around the room as Holly took pictures of her own, a habit that had proven to be useful when recreating a scene later on.

"Have you checked the other lockers?" Holly asked, opening the freezer, the inside smelled overwhelmingly of formaldehyde and bleach. "We have checked every locker, no other freezers; the name on the rental agreement here is not the same name from the other three lockers." Knight nodded as Holly sighed, another serial case that had no potential leads so far.

"Get everything back to my lab; I'll have the autopsy done as soon as possible." Holly sighed, placing the sheet back over the body. The sutures matched the first six bodies, but this body was not funeral ready. Holly could tell right away that this body would cause a headache; each limb appeared to be from a different corpse. "I can tell you that there are at least three different people missing limbs, but I won't know until I've been able to undo the puzzle." Holly turned to the detectives while taking off her gloves. Holly almost laughed at the less than interested expressions worn by Callahan and Tracie, but Knight still seemed pale and anxious.

"Can you ask Steve to pick Sophie up for school in the morning, Gail's on bed rest and I took her keys." Holly laughed, walking towards Tracie, who held her exam kit. "Yeah no problem, need me to assign a car to sit on the house to ensure she doesn't leave?" Tracie smirked as Holly thought it over. "She should be fine on her own; it hurts too much for her to move anyways." Holly turned to Detective Knight who had been standing awkwardly against the wall. "If you stop by the morgue in a few hours I would have more information or I can call." Holly noticed the tremble in Detective Knight's hand just before she dropped the tray of coffee on Holly, who didn't have time to back away from the tepid liquid now soaking her clothes.

"Oh shit sorry!" Knight gasped as Holly stared down at her soaked jeans and top. "No worries, I have extra clothes in the car." Holly nodded before turning to leave with Tracie following close behind, currently batting two for two in the coffee vs. clothing fight. "You ok?" Tracie asked once they had stopped at Holly's jeep. "I just need to get out of these clothes." Holly muttered, reaching into the back seat for her gym bag; she couldn't believe that Knight had actually dropped the entire tray of coffee at a scene let alone on her.

"Detective Knight nearly passed out when she saw the body, Callahan sent her for coffee to distract her. This is her first time on a murder case; she never worked one while on beat." Tracie pulled off her jacket and held it up as a curtain to allow Holly to change her shirt. "She thought I was Steve's wife when I first met her, she seems easily shaken up." Holly pulled a clean shirt over her head and handed Tracie a towel so she could take off her pants. Annoyed, tired, and now wet Holly wanted nothing more than to be back in bed with Gail.

"Callahan hasn't let her live that down; Steve found it amusing when she tried to apologize to Him, she thought Gail would have told the entire station about it." Tracie held out the towel as Holly pulled off her jeans. "15 has a reputation with 27, we have both of the Peck's, and we close the biggest cases, they either envy us or hate us." Tracie laughed when Holly took the towel and threw it into the back seat of her jeep, now dressed in combat boots, a gray t-shirt and bright green leggings. "I have jeans at work, don't judge." Holly glared as Tracie tried to suppress her laugh, once again, she was wearing a t-shirt with PECK written across the back in bold lettering, this one just happened to be from the division softball league. "Don't let her come into my lab with coffee Tracie, I don't need the mess." Holly sighed before driving away, she knew she was in for an all-nighter and she didn't have the time to ease Detective Knight through processing her emotions.

**AN: the next chapter will be more Tracie and Holly heavy, and it should be posted by Saturday. Also I would like to try my hand at prompt writing (I did one and it wasn't great but practice?) so if you have ideas PM me or message me on (apparent-winds.) Tumblr.**


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: Hello lovely wonderful people of the world, I am so so so so sorry for the impromptu hiatus with my story. I’ve written and rewritten this chapter at least 20 times trying to make it work and I’m not sure how I feel about it even now but I’m posting it anyways.

The last few months have been extremely busy, I’ve started a new job, moved to a new city, and welcomed a tiny baby nephew into the world.

The updates should start back up weekly from now on.  
Thank you for your continued support, I would like to give each and every one of you a hug.  
~  
Once Holly arrived back at the lab, she understood why Knight had been nauseous at the storage facility. Erin nearly puked when the body had been pulled from the freezer, in the less favorable lighting of the storage locker and for the fear of contaminating the evidence Holly hadn’t spent much time examining the body at the scene.

The extent of the patchwork was grotesque to say the least, dozens if not hundreds, of stitches held every joint on the body in place. The body resembled a prop from and early era horror film with the stitches and its grayish hue, a modern day Frankenstein's Monster. 

“What would possess a person to do this?” Erin asked as Holly came out of her office in Gray scrubs, Holly glanced at the intern noticing that her color had returned to a semi normal state and she appeared less queasy.

“That’s what we need to find out.” Holly muttered, grabbing the plastic apron from the coat hook and tightening it around her waist, her body felt weighted and stiff from exhaustion, she knew that she still had a marathon’s worth of work to complete before she would be able to sleep.

Holly dismissed the over eager intern and set up her work station, a box of gloves, a video camera to document the entire autopsy, a tape recorder to document her notes, and a variety of sample collection dishes and bags.

Holly didn’t have an issue processing the bodies, the part of her job that battled her where the people who committed the acts against them. She had faced them in court and it worried her how normal they could appear, they were mothers, fathers, and children. They were often upstanding people whose friends, families, and colleagues would offer admirable character reviews.

Holly took pictures of the body and quickly uploaded the drive into her computer before she began disconnecting the miss matched pieces of the cadaver. Her first observation has been the varying stages of decomposition, only the torso appeared to be relatively fresh, the rest of the pieces varied in age varying from a few days to weeks.

After processing the autopsy Holly walked the samples into the processing lab to put into the mass spec. She had collected threads, fibers, hairs, and tissue to both determine the number of cadavers that made up the body and to ID the pieces.

Holly’s phone vibrated against the metal table jolting her out of her focused workflow, she glanced down at the picture of Steve from last Halloween dressed as a Zombie.

D. Peck: Just a heads up, Gail’s sleeping on the floor in the living room. I just dropped Sophie off at school.

Dr. Stew: Thank you Steve, I’m sure Gail will not have moved by the time I’m home.

D. Peck: {1 image attachment}

D. Peck: You didn’t get that from me.

Holly opened the picture and smiled, Gail laid in the middle of their living room rug in Holly’s high school track hoodie.

Dr. Stew: I will never tell, thanks : )

D. Nash: Where are you, I brought breakfast.

Holly started typing out her message when her phone rang. “Hey Tracie, I’m in the sample lab, give me a few minutes to lock up and I’ll head up to my office, the door should be open.” Holly rambled collecting her laptop and tape recorder.

“No need to rush, I’ll be here.” Tracie laughed before hanging up. Holly locked the lab and made her way back towards her office, only stopping to quickly change out of her scrubs and back into her jeans and t-shirt.

“I figured you may need a break before Knight and Callahan come in, they went to 27 to search cold cases.” Tracie held out a large paper coffee cup as Holly walked into her office.

“Have I ever told you that I love you?” Holly grinned sipping the steaming coffee, she had been focused enough during the autopsy to forget her fatigue, the second she read Steve’s text it rolled over her with the force of a tsunami.

“Steve took Sophie to school, he mentioned that he nearly checked Gail’s pulse when he walked into the house.” Tracie shook her head and handed Holly a plate with bacon, eggs, and toast. “Gail cussed him out before he even made it into the living room.”

“That’s the Gail I love.” Holly laughed, moving the chair from her desk to the coffee table in the middle of the room. “She didn’t take the pain killers for her back last night before we went to bed. She won't risk waking up Sophie having a nightmare.”

“Are those still frequent?” Tracie asked between bites of toast, she didn’t ask to pry she only offered Holly the option to vent. Tracie knew that Holly’s friends outside of their group didn’t fully understand what being with a cop meant, or how the day to day events left scars on their lives.

“Honestly, no. She has problems falling asleep at times, but her nightmares flare up when she’s on pain killers.” Holly ate a few bites of her eggs shaking her head.

“At least that doesn’t happen often.” Tracie nodded picking up a piece of bacon. “Have you guys had time to discuss the wedding?”

“Are you asking for Elaine?” Holly laughed, leaning back in her chair, Elaine had been hounding them to set a date so she could build a list of names for wedding announcements.

“No.” Tracie shook her head. “But her bugging you seems right. She called Steve three days after he proposed asking for my mother’s phone number claiming that they needed to start building a guest list.”

“Oh, my mother and Elaine are thick as thieves. I’d bet on them scheming already.” Holly sighed. “We’ve been busy, she proposed and we caught the Harris case, and now this case. We haven’t had the time.”

“Yeah, the cases have been piling up lately.” Tracie nodded, finishing her breakfast, she set the empty plate on the coffee table and leaned back on the couch. 

“We will figure it all out, it may not be soon. I won’t let Elaine and my mother highjack our wedding though.” Holly agreed sipping her coffee.

“I’m happy for you and Gail. It’s refreshing to have the happy version of Gail full time.” Tracie watched the blush creep across Holly’s cheeks.

“Being with Gail have been the best and worst parts of my life.” Holly laughed to herself staring down at her now empty plate. “I honestly thought I would never find that person you grow up here stories of, that one person who you instantly click with. I figured I’d never find it and all of a sudden standing at the edge of a crime scene I found Gail.”

Tracie watched Holly wondering if she should question how it had been the worst part of her life when she stopped talking.

“Have you heard the analogy that it happened as fast as lightening?” Holly asked glancing up at Tracie who nodded.

“That’s Gail, one day I’m walking through my mundane life, putting the pieces back together after leaving a 4 year relationship and suddenly I’m standing in an interrogation room at 15 and she’s kissing me. I had found my person and I lost her when I found my dream job, it all happened in what felt like seconds. My heart broke, I agreed to San Francisco and I knew that my heart and my future would always be here in Toronto.”

Holly moved the plate from her lap to the coffee table before crossing her legs and meeting Tracie’s curious and concerned gaze. “Without a doubt I know that Gail is my soul mate, she’s the person I had been waiting for and that sucked when I moved. I’m happiest with her and Sophie, my heart feels whole. Every time they left California to come back here, or when I left back to California, every time I hung up the phone or turned off my computer my heart broke because an entire country separated us.”

“Did you ever imagine that you could need a person that much?” Tracie laughed noticing Holly’s worried expression. “After Jerry died, I tried to be alone, to avoid the pain of losing someone else. One day I’m standing in Gail’s apartment helping her pick out dresses for a blind date discussing my refusal to date Steve. It felt as if days had passed when he got down on one knee, holding a diamond ring and a key proposing to me and asking to be Leo’s step dad. I can barely deal with cases that keep us away for a few days, how you and Gail spent two years apart only physically being together a handful of times baffles me.”

“Honestly I wonder how we made it here. We fought, we broke up, we loved each other though, and that made us want to work it out.” Holly shrugged, watching the shock appear on Tracie’s face. “We broke up twice, we thought that it would be easier if we tried to distance ourselves from each other.”

“How is it that I didn’t know that you broke up?!” Tracie asked as her expression morphed from shocked to pissed off.

“We didn’t want to drag everyone into it, to drag Sophie into it.” Holly laughed chewing on her lip. “We had a fight 6 months after I moved, Gail had been granted custody of Sophie and our schedules were out of sync. We played phone tag for two weeks and when we finally found time to talk it turned into this yelling match over Skype. I begrudgingly told her that we should just break up now to save the time and she agreed and we both hung up.”

“I tried calling her to apologize when I knew she would be awake I knew she wouldn’t answer though, we had been through that already, thanks to the night at the penny, I took time off work and flew back to beg for forgiveness.” Holly could tell that the puzzle pieces falling into place in Tracie’s mind.

“You showed up at the station.” Tracie shook her head, remembering Holly stalking into the station and cornering Gail in an interrogation room.

“We have a thing for interrogation rooms.” Holly laughed running her teeth over her lower lip. “6 months of stress and fear melted away the second I had her in my arms.”  
“What other time did you break up?” Tracie asked clearing off the coffee table and throwing their breakfast plates in the trash.

“Right after Sophie’s adoption had been finalized.” Holly muttered. “Sophie had asked me why I didn’t live with Gail, why we weren’t a full time family. Gail told her that I lived in the states for work and my job meant the world to me. The night before I flew home Gail told me that she needed to focus on Sophie, that coordinating work, Sophie, and time for me made our relationship to stressful. We spent that night holding each other both trying to not cry before we were separated again.”

“And that lasted what, 4 days?” Tracie choked on a laugh noticing Holly’s expression fall between scared and heartbroken.

“We didn’t talk for 2 months.” Holly breathed, those two months had been the worst. Holly had buried herself in her work, taking on extra hours. She stopped calling her friends and family, the only person she needed to talk to had to focus on her new life and Holly didn’t know if she had a place in it anymore.

“2 months!?” Tracie just stared at Holly wondering how she was just now learning that they had been broken up for two months.

“My mom told me once that people who are meant to be together find each other like magnets. I came back to Toronto for my parent’s anniversary party and I ran into Gail every day. I only went out to the places Gail would never visit, she hates the side of town my brothers live in, but she appeared around every corner.” Holly shook her head. “I couldn’t wait to be back to work, I knew that I wouldn’t run into Gail in San Francisco. I came home from the airport to find her asleep on my couch.”

“Sophie wouldn’t talk to Gail until she talked to me, Sophie says that Gail’s heart isn’t whole without both of us in it.” Holly smiled to herself. “We spent a day arguing about how the odds were stacked against us and then booked a flight back to Toronto, we were in limbo, nothing had been resolved.”

“Wait, we had lunch the week of your parent's anniversary, you bought the house a week after that.” Tracie tried to put a timeline together in her head listening to Holly.

“We went with you and Steve to the butterfly show at the park that weekend.” Holly nodded, playing with her engagement ring that hung against her locket. “On our way home, we stumbled upon the house just as the realtor put the for sale sign up. We were going through the motions still, tip toeing around each other. We toured the house and put in the offer.”

“You guys closed on that house three days later.” Tracie’s eyebrows furrowed as she stared at Holly.

“My parents call it our last-ditch effort, it forced us to talk lay all on the table, the house became the solid foundation we didn’t have, a home, a tangible commitment.” Holly nodded, remembering the night before they signed all the paperwork, they had laid everything out, fears, dreams, hopes, and wishes. They had cried and yelled, but they figured out a timeline. “We built a plan, I would complete my contract, and move home, to our home. And once a month we would be together as a family, even it if was for a night.”

“That explains why you guys started traveling more.” Tracie nodded to herself. “That first year you had only visited each other three times and suddenly you were both building up frequent flyer miles.”

“It cured my fear of flying.” Holly smiled, attempting to stifle a yawn. “We realized that we couldn’t be that long distance couple who only saw each other every six months. We did everything out of order, we started a relationship with a continent between us, we built a family, we bought a house, and a year after that, we moved in together and now we’re engaged.”

“Gail’s never been one for order, she gets it right though.” Tracie smiled hearing the printer in Holly’s office groan to life.

“Those would be the test results.” Holly stood up and walked to the printer watching it spit out the results of the DNA tests. “You should call Callahan and Knight.” Holly muttered, reading over the first few pages.

“They just walked in.” Tracie laughed motioning towards the window in Holly’s office facing the lab.

“We came up empty handed.” Callahan huffed as he sulked into the room and dropped next to Tracie on the couch. Knight stood awkwardly in the doorway, staring at Callahan.

“I may have a lead for you.” Holly sighed, making sure the printer would print 4 copies. “DNA results from all of the pieces show that 13 different cadavers make up the one pulled from the storage locker.”

“So we need to find 13 partial bodies?” Knight asked wide eyed.

“No.” Holly shook her head and collected the copies of the results from the printer and passed them out. “All of the samples were in the database, it’s a requirement for all Medically Gifted specimens, and all 13 bodies were donated to the University of Toronto’s school of medicine.”

“How did 13 medically gifted bodies end up stitched together and stuffed into a vintage freezer in a storage locker?” Callahan muttered reading over the list of names attached to the report.

“I have no idea.” Holly shrugged glancing at the clock on the wall, she still needed to type of her official report before she left the lab which meant she wouldn’t be home until dinner time.

“Best guess?” Callahan asked, he knew that Holly had a theory by the way she chewed on her lip.

“Each class honors the bodies in a different way, some classes hold memorials, other hold funeral services, and each school has a dedicated funeral home.” Holly watched Callahan quickly jot down his notes on the back of the printouts. “UoT uses the funeral home the first bodies were stolen from. I would check out all of the employees.”

“We’ve checked all of them, none of them have ever left Canada much less gone to school in the UK.” Knight grunted, not bothering to look up from her phone.

“The person may have been taught by a European doctor, the stitch pattern is a new technique only taught in the UK.” Holly rolled her eyes at Knight, Knight was the detective, Holly just dealt with the bodies.

“We will check it out.” Tracie glanced and Callahan before standing up. “We should head back to the station and file the warrant to search the morgue and their employment records.”

“I’ll email you the rest of the test results once they come in.” Holly moved the chair she had been sitting in for breakfast back to its rightful place before walking behind her desk. “Thank you for breakfast Tracie.”

“Any time!” Tracie called following Callahan and Knight into the hallway. Holly moved to sit down when a man in an expensive suit knocked on her doorframe.

“Dr. Stewart?” The man asked quickly glancing over Holly’s appearance.

“Um, yes.” Holly’s brow furrowed watching as the man quickly pulled a black folder from his briefcase and held it out to her.

“These are for you.” He politely smiled as Holly took the folder. “My card’s inside, please call if you have questions.” The man turned on his heel and walked down the hall, leaving Holly confused as she stared down at the folder in her hands.


	14. 14

A/N: This chapter is shorter than the last few, but the next chapter is huge and will be up on Sunday J

Holly loved the science side of her job, she loved the tools and the research, Holly hated the paper work. The lack of a homicide with the current case involving 19 cadavers left Holly with a mountain of paperwork. Her body ached with fatigue, her eyes were dry from staring at the computer, and she could almost guarantee she was only functioning on 15% brain power by the time she had submitted her official reports.

The bright white numbers on her dashboard read half past six why Holly pulled into the garage, she climbed out of the car leaving her work stuff in the back seat. An exhausted smile appeared on Holly's lips the moment she opened the door, Sophie could be heard yelling at the TV over the familiar sounds of The Super Smash Bro's and the smell of dinner cooking made Holly's mouth water.

"Your home late." Gail smiled, appearing in the doorway to the kitchen drying her hands on a dish towel. The last time they had talked Holly had been trying to leave the office by lunch.

"I left as soon as I could, the amount of paperwork that has to be done in this case is nightmare inducing." Holly nodded toeing out of her boots before making her way towards Gail. "How are you feeling?" Holly asked, searching Gail's face for any inkling of pain.

"I feel better, but I'm not 100%" Gail shrugged pulling Holly in her arms. "You reek of formaldehyde." Gail quickly back out of the embrace and scrunched her nose at Holly who smiled.

"I know, autopsies on embalmed corpuses suck." Holly nodded, she could no longer smell the formaldehyde on herself, and she didn't doubt that it she reeked. "I'm going to grab a quick shower, can you please start a pot of coffee?"

"Yes, take three showers please." Gail smiled, walking towards the coffee pot, Gail knew that the stench of the lab would linger in their sheets and blankets if Holly didn't completely wash off the stench.

"Hi Sophie!" Holly called from the bottom of the stairs, she watched Sophie quickly nod from her seat on the couch, her eyes never leaving the screen.

"Hi Mama!" Sophie called a few moments later once Holly had made it up the stairs.

Holly walked into their bedroom and eyed the bed for a moment, she wanted to crawl under the covers and sleep for 24 hours, to finally let her brain and her body rest. The process of taking a shower seemed to be to energy consuming.

"Take a shower nerd!" Gail yelled up the stairs when she hadn't heard the shower start, Gail knew that Holly would be tempted to go to sleep after the shift she had had.

Holly pouted to herself before shuffling into the bathroom, she haphazardly stripped and stepped into the shower before turning it on full heat, letting the hot water relax her sore muscles.

Gail busied herself with making a pot of coffee before pulling the casserole she had made for dinner out of the other. "Soph, please come set the table." Gail called as she divided and plated their dinner.

"Can I ask mama to take me to the science center tomorrow?" Sophie asked rummaging through the silverware drawer collecting forks.

"You can ask love, she may be too tired though, it's been an exhausting week." Gail watched Sophie set out forks and napkins, Sophie seemed to think over Gail's answer for a few moments before turning to Gail.

"Can you take me?" Sophie asked, chewing on her lip, watching Gail prepare a cup of coffee for Holly. Sophie usually only asked Holly to take her to the Science Center, Gail didn't share their love of the place but she tried.

"Ask mama first and we can figure it out from their love." Gail smiled, walking over to kiss Sophie's forehead when she pouted.

Holly made her way downstairs in a pair of sweats and a t-shirt a few minutes later, her hair neatly braided and damp. "Do I still smell?" Holly asked, holding her hands towards Gail's face. "I can't smell it, I've been stuck in the lab with the smell and I'm desensitized."

Gail leaned forward eyeing Holly cautiously, she sniffed the air and smiled. "You smell like vanilla." Gail quickly pulled Holly forward and hugged her, no longer put off by her scent. "Just the way I like you." Gail kissed Holly's cheek breathing her in, Holly's skin was still warm from the shower.

"Mama, can we go to the science center tomorrow?" Sophie asked placing glasses filled with water on the table. "They have the Myth Busters exhibit and it looks amazing."

"What did your mom say?" Holly asked, pulling away from Gail and walking up to Sophie and hugging her.

"Mom said that I could ask." Sophie hugged Holly back as Holly mulled over the idea in her head. She loved the Science Center just as much as Sophie did, but a day at the museum sounded exhausting.

"I'll make a deal with you." Holly smiled down at Sophie. "Let me sleep in until 11 tomorrow, and we can go to the Science Center."

"YES!" Sophie beamed letting go of Holly as she danced towards her seat at the table.

They ate dinner discussing Sophie's school work and the upcoming school soccer tryouts that Sophie insisted she partake in because her best friend was already on the team. Gail didn't take kindly to the soccer mom joke Holly made immediately after the announcement.

After putting Sophie to bed, Gail and Holly made their way to their bedroom, Holly collapse onto the mattress and smiled at its welcoming embrace.

"Would you mind terribly if I took Sophie to the science center alone tomorrow?" Holly mumbled against the pillow as Gail moved the covers on her side of the bed out of the way before climbing into bed.

"What's on your mind nerd, I could see the gears working over dinner." Gail asked watching Holly, she quickly tapped her thigh motioning for Holly to move over, she undid Holly's hair tie once she had settled and raked her fingers through the dark hair waiting for Holly's answer.

"The lawyers dropped all of the paperwork off at my office today." Holly breathed Rolling to press her forehead into Gail's side. "I want to talk to Sophie before we start the paperwork. We asked her how she felt, I need to make sure though."

"Is that why you were at the office so late?" Gail asked gently scratching Holly's scalp. "Were you overthinking everything?"

"I wish." Holly snorted. "I filed 13 reports, the body that they recovered last night was made of 13 cadavers." Holly turned to look up at Gail, she wasn't having second thoughts, she didn't have any doubt that she wanted to adopt Sophie, but she might be overthinking everything.

"I just want to talk to Sophie one my own, to make sure that she isn't just saying what she thinks we want to hear." Holly smiled when she met Gail's eyes. "I left the papers in my jeep, all 36 pages. The second parent adoption forms, the designation of guardianship, and our living wills." Holly had read the table of contents for the folder after they had been dropped off.

They had both requested the paperwork, they had sat down with Sophie and discussed the possibilities for their new family and how Sophie felt about everything. Holly wanted to file the adoption paperwork, she needed to talk to Sophie one on one before she jumped the gun though.

"Why we need to fill everything out again." Gail grunted running her thumb along Holly's forehead before smiling.

"Because we don't have living wills, I'm listed as your emergency contact Gail, I have no legal rights past that." Holly breathed reaching up to lace her fingers with Gail's, Holly didn't want to think of Gail getting hurt in the line of duty but she also knew that they had to have a plan just in case. "And we need to designate a guardian in case something happens to either of us or both of us heaven forbid."

Gail watched Holly's eyes start to drift closed, smiling at how lucky she was to have Holly in her life. "You need to stand up before you fall asleep on top of the covers." Gail gently nudged Holly to sit up, she pulled the covers back once Holly stood at the edge of their bed.

"I have absolutely no problem with you taking our daughter to the museum tomorrow." Gail smiled as Holly laid down. "I'm also sure that's why Sophie asked you to take her and not us."

"She told me that you don't get excited about the nerdy stuff." Holly smiled drifting to sleep thinking about their future, their family, and all of the possibilities.

"Mom, can I wake up mama!?" Sophie asked at 11:01, she had been sitting at the counter watching the clock since 9 am.

"I'll wake her up, you go get dressed." Gail laughed as Sophie raced up the stairs with a giddy smile on her face. Gail made a cup of coffee before heading up to their bedroom. Holly was laying on her stomach with the covers kicked to the foot of the bed.

"It's 11 already?" Holly mumbled into her pillow before rolling over to sit up.

"Yep." Gail nodded, holding out the coffee cup, Holly stretched before reaching out and wrapping her hands around the hot mug.

"Are you sure you're up from this?" Gail asked, leaning forward to kiss Holly's forehead, the sleepy Burnet smiled and nodded sipping her coffee.

"This exhibit looks interesting, and I want to talk to Sophie." Holly smiled and yawned. "I slept great, I should be able to tackle a day of excitement."

"You know you don't have to worry right, Sophie loves you and she tells her classmates that one of her mom's is a doctor." Gail sat on the edge of the bed facing Holly, she could tell that Holly's nerves were getting the better of her.

"Mama, I'm ready!" Sophie's voice faded as she raced downstairs.

"I should get dressed." Holly laughed, setting her coffee cup on the night stand. "I just want to make sure she's 100%." Holly walked into the closet to change into a pair of jeans and button down plaid shirt.

"This isn't a spur of the moment decision, she shouldn't feel like we are rushing into this." Holly smiled when she walked back into the bedroom, Gail sat on the bed watching her with a lazy smile. "You and I have had a million discussions about this, we've talked about it from every aspect, we've only had a handful of conversations with Sophie, and I haven't talked to her on my own."

Gail watched Holly walk into the bathroom before laughing and standing up. "What on earth did I do to deserve you?" Gail asked, standing in the doorway to the bathroom. "You are the most loving and considerate person I've ever met Hol."

Holly turned around with a toothbrush in her mouth and took in the sight before her, Gail Peck standing in the doorway to their bathroom in jeans and a faded t-shirt. The smile that graced her lips when she looked at her. "I ask myself the same thing every day Gail." Holly watched Gail for a moment longer before turning back to finish brushing her teeth.

"We should be home by dinner time, I'll keep you updated if plans change." Holly grinned walking towards Gail. "Call me if you need anything, ok?" Holly asked, pulling Gail into her arms.

"I will." Gail leaned forward and kissed Holly, Gail couldn't explain why, but today felt like the first day of their future, their forever. "Have fun and don't be nervous." Gail breathed when she broke apart.


End file.
